Tumor suppressor found –

MADRID (EFE).— An international team of researchers, including the Spaniard Juan Cadiñanos, discovered a new therapeutic target once morest breast cancer that opens up new treatment possibilities.

The finding, reported in the journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), describes the fundamental role that a set of proteins plays in stopping the multiplication of tumor cells in certain types of breast cancer.

Researchers had already found that there are a series of breast tumors that have high levels of a protein called Aurora A, involved in cell division and, therefore, in the multiplication of cancer, explains Spaniard Juan Cadiñanos, scientific director of the Asturias Medical Center Foundation.

The paradox is that, although drugs had been designed to inhibit the Aurora A protein and prevent the evolution of tumors, the results of clinical trials “had not been very positive.”

The novelty of this research is the discovery of a group of several proteins formed by tumor suppressors that reduce the levels of Aurora A and the ability of cancer to reproduce.

In this protein complex, scientists identified a specific protein, called PTEN, which is a powerful tumor suppressor.

“We have found a stop to breast cancer,” the scientist stressed.

Cadiñanos’ team already verified in experiments with genetically modified mice that if they lost the PTEN protein, breast tumors and elevated levels of Aurora A appeared, in a finding reported in the magazine “Nature Genetics” in 2017.

Other authors of the present study, such as Subatra Sen and Hirosi Katayama (researchers at the MD Anderson center in Texas), had seen the same results with human cell samples grown in the laboratory: the lower the levels of PTEN, the greater the possibility of uncontrolled Aurora A protein and of the development of breast tumors associated with its overexpression.

Now, following verifying the joint potential of PTEN and other proteins, the researchers demonstrated, in tests with mice, that the combination of two drugs: Alisertib, to inhibit the activity of Aurora A, and Fimepinostat, to promote its degradation, gives very good results. results in suppressing the growth of breast tumors.

While both drugs are not highly effective separately, their combination has proven successful in preclinical trials.

“Additional trials will always be required, but this combination of drugs opens new treatment possibilities and therapeutic strategies in breast cancers with Aurora A overexpression,” Cadiñanos stated.