2024-01-12 14:03:29
This work has clinical implications: drugs once morest other types of cancer can stop this process and cause the death of tumor cells. Future clinical studies are already planned to validate these data.
T-cell lymphomas are a subgroup of tumors that are particularly aggressive and difficult to treat, in part because the molecular processes involved in the growth of this type of cancer remain poorly understood. The German team from TranslaTUM, the TUM Central Institute for Translational Cancer Research, is proposing new treatment strategies here.
Lymphomas are caused by genetic changes in certain immune cells, called T cells, which then lose their function, reproduce in large numbers and form tumors at different sites in the body. In previous research, the TUM team had already shown that a particular gene was modified in around a third of T-cell lymphomas. This gene contains the “blueprints” for the PD-1 protein, described as a sort of emergency off switch: PD-1 is a tumor suppressor that prevents mutated cells from reproducing and causing cancer.
Reactivate tumor suppressor PD-1 in T cells
The study reveals that:
- inactivity of the PD-1 protein in T cells triggers the growth of the lymphoma and, at the same time, sugar metabolism is stimulated: the cells absorb a large volume of sugar in order to have the energy they need need to develop;
- when PD-1 is deficient, certain enzymes become particularly active in cells, promoting this acceleration of sugar metabolism and an increase in epigenetic mutations in cells. These epigenetic modifications activate or deactivate genes in order to stimulate tumor growth a little more.
- Existing drugs once morest other tumors might be effective: the team shows, in vitro and in vivo, in the lymphoma mouse model, that inhibitors already approved once morest other types of cancer (PI3K inhibitors, mTOR and ACLY) and available in the form of drugs or in development might thus be effective once morest aggressive T-cell lymphomas.
Clinical trials on these repositionings are already planned.
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