Researchers from Stanford University in the United States of America have come up with a new technology that may turn the tables on cancer cells and defeat them by changing the role of a protein that prevents cell death and making it a protein that stimulates it.
The human body gets rid of 60 billion cells every day through a natural process known as programmed cell death (Apoptosis), which is part of the natural cell renewal cycle.
Most of these cells – especially blood and digestive cells – are replaced by new cells. But the way the body gets rid of these cells may hold great importance for cancer treatments, according to a new methodology developed by Stanford Medicine researchers.
Researchers seek to exploit this natural method of cell death to force cancer cells to kill themselves. Their approach relies on artificially combining two proteins together, which activates cell death genes and thus prompts cancer cells to destroy themselves. The new compound was described in a research paper published in the journal Science on October 4, and the Eurek Alert website wrote about it.
Idea of a picnic
The idea came to the mind of Dr. Gerald Crabtree, from the Department of Pathology at Stanford University, while on a hike during the Corona pandemic in the forests of Kings Mountain, west of Palo Alto, California. Crabtree was contemplating the most important biological discoveries, including the discovery in the 1970s about the ability of cells to destroy themselves for the benefit of the organism.
Programmed cell death is necessary for several biological processes, such as proper growth of organs and controlling the functioning of the immune system.
New techniques for treating cancer
Conventional cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy and radiation, rely on destroying large numbers of healthy cells alongside cancer cells. But the team at Stanford University has developed a new type of “molecular glue” that connects two proteins that would not normally associate with each other.
Reprogramming cancer cells
BCL6, when mutated, focuses on blocking genes that trigger cell death, thus preventing cancer cells from dying.
The researchers designed a molecule that links BCL6 to another protein called CDK9, which acts as an enzyme to activate genes. In this way, cell death-inducing genes that BCL6 normally turns off are turned on.
When the team tested the molecule in diffuse large lymphoma cells in the laboratory, they found that it killed the cancer cells very efficiently. When they tested it on healthy mice, no toxic side effects were observed. Lymphoma is a type of blood cancer that affects the immune system.
Effectiveness and future research
The new technology focused on exploiting the BCL6 protein, which is found only in this type of cancer cell. When the compound was tested in 859 types of cancer cells in the laboratory, it was effective only against cells infected with lymphoma.
Researchers plan to develop similar compounds that target other oncogenic proteins, such as the Ras gene, which is responsible for several different types of cancer, with expectations of launching trials on humans soon.