Also included in: Neurology / neuroscience;??Pediatrics / children's health
Article Date: June 5, 2013-0:00 PDT current ratings for:
Hope offered by the new treatment for neuroblastoma
Researchers at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have found a promising strategy to overcome neuroblastoma - a malignant form of cancer in children – which focuses on protein MYCN. A specific chemical molecule to decompose MYCN, which kills cancer cells or makes mature in a harmless neuron. The discovery, published in the journal PNAS, raises hopes of new and more effective treatments in the future.
Neuroblastoma is the third form of childhood cancer. Usually, it develops before the age of two and affects about two dozen children per year in Sweden and about 800 in the United States. Tumours are normally found in the peripheral nervous system, but in very young infants, they can sometimes spread all over the body. Current treatments are hard and have serious side effects, and for many patients, the prognosis is poor. In its most aggressive form survive only a minority, that allows to find particularly urgent alternative treatments.
In the case of neuroblastoma, additional copies of the gene coding for the protein MYCN normally found in the cancer cell. It is a clear indication of a poor prognosis, as it has long been known that the incorrect activation of MYC and MYCN similar genes causes cancer. The strategy of the research group to defeat the disease was therefore to identify substances that prevent the MYC-triggered cell division or that kill cancer cells specifically MYC.
"We found that a small chemical molecule that is known from previous studies, inhibits the activity of c - MYC protein, also inhibits the activity of MYCN," says Principal Investigator Mary Rakesh Henriksson, Professor of molecular biology of tumours in Karolinska Institutet. 'Substance disrupts the connection between MYCN and another protein called Max, which translates the degradation MYCN and, subsequently, either to cell death in cells of neuroblastoma with one copy, of the MYCN gene or their development into neurons how their malignancy disappears. Small chemical molecules that stuns MYCN are therefore a possible treatment for children suffering from neuroblastoma, as well as other option based the MYC tumors. ?
The molecule used by researchers is no drug candidate; the conclusion is rather seen as a model that can inspire future treatments. However, the researchers estimated that the survival rate increased when they applied treatments of test on mice suffering from neuroblastoma. The study has also led to a new discovery about what is happening inside the cancer cell, where treatment resulted in an accumulation of fat droplets, suggesting that MYC proteins affect metabolism of tumor cells and the normal breakdown of fatty acids.
"It's an original conclusion," said Professor Arsenian Henriksson. "Was not already observed that the inhibition of MYC affects tumor cells in this way. This has not only opened new avenues for new treatments for some forms of cancer, but also implications for metabolic diseases, such as diabetes. ?
Article adapted by Medical News Today press release original. Click on "references" tab above for the source.Visit our cancer / Oncology section for the latest news on this subject. The study was funded by grants from several bodies, including the Swedish Childhood Cancer Foundation, the company Swedish Cancer, the Swedish Research Council, Karolinska Institutet, and the Foundation Hedlund.
Publication: "inhibition of MYC induces metabolic changes leading to the accumulation of lipid droplets in tumor cells, Hanna Zirath, Anna Frenzel, Ganna Oliynyk, Lova Segerstrom, Ulrica K. Westermark, Karin Larsson, Matilda Munksgaard person, Kjell Hultenby, Janne Lehtio, Christer Einvik, Sven Pahlman Per Kogner, Per-Johan Jakobsson and Marie Arsenian Henriksson, PNAS Online 3-7 June 2013.
Karolinska Institutet
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