Revolutionary Drug Combinations Toward Cancer Cure

Cancer treatment gains the highest lead among most of the researchers. The path that triggers the cancer cell growth is the same that also directs to its destruction. The mutated metabolic pathway– PI3K-AKT-mTOR pathway that protects cancer cells, is identified as the forefront to design new therapeutics, as per research at Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) Cancer Center, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The cancer cells exhibit certain metabolic changes that make them prone to a particular type of cell death called ferroptosis – often triggered by oxidative stress, free radicals, and other corrosive chemicals resulting as by-products of using oxygen as fuel for energy.

Pathway Towards Cancer Treatment:

The cancer cells become resistant to ferroptosis through a genetic mutation in the PI3K-AKT-mTOR pathway. This mutation protects the cancer cells by increasing the activity of a protein that is involved in making lipids for the cell's outer membrane. These extra lipids help to protect the cells against oxidative stress, and therefore ferroptosis. Thus, by blocking PI3K-AKT-mTOR, the lipid synthesis can be halted, and the cells re-sensitize to ferroptosis.

The idea was proved true when the scientists added drugs that block the action of this metabolic pathway to the ferroptosis-inducing drug, which ultimately resulted in the death of cancer cells. A similar effect was seen in mouse models of breast and prostate cancers containing these mutations with near-complete tumor destruction in the mice.

"The key point is that many cancers have genetic alterations that can be exploited to trigger ferroptosis and kill the cells. It's an exciting way to think about developing new cancer treatments." Dr. Jiang says.

The team has paved a whole new concept towards cancer biology and is working towards efficacy of the drug combination in tumor samples obtained from patients being treated at MSK.

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Source-Medindia