Cancer
therapies which cut off blood supplies to dangerous tumours could be an
effective new way of helping cancer patients, a study has found.
Cutting out the blood supply to tumours,
in combination with existing chemotherapeutic
drugs, could stop cancer tumours from
growing. The ground-breaking research carried out on mice found tumour growth
is better-reduced when the Beta3-integrin protein is targeted together with
widely used cancer medication. The study, led by researchers at the University
of East Anglia (UEA), was published today in the science journal EMBO
Reports.
Lead researcher Dr Stephen Robinson, from UEA’s
School
of Biological Sciences, said: “Tumours must recruit their own blood supply
to grow beyond a very small size and this process is called angiogenesis.
“Anti-angiogenic drugs stop tumours from growing their own blood
vessels, and this in turn can slow the growth of the cancer, or
shrink it.
“Targeting angiogenesis is
therefore seen as crucial in many anti-cancer strategies.
“However many
anti-angiogenetic therapies target proteins that help the functioning of a
patient’s normal blood supply – and this can lead to nasty side effects
including haemorrhage, strokes, high blood pressure, and fatigue.”
The researchers now hope to
re-energise medical interest in microtubule-targeting agents (MTAs) – protein
structures which help cells move and divide and are commonly used in chemotherapy.
The scientists found the use of MTAs together
with Beta3-integrin targeting is a more successful combo than Beta3-integrin
targeting used alone.
Dr Robinson said: "This protein, Beta3-integrin, has been
the focus of drug design over the last two decades because its expression is
vastly increased in endothelial cells during blood vessel recruitment to
tumours.
“We found that targeting the
protein Beta3-integrin in combination with the use of microtubule-targeting
agents (MTAs) could be a good way to stop tumours recruiting a blood supply to
grow.
“This is really important
because MTAs are already in clinic and commonly used as
chemotherapies such as paclitaxel in cancer patients.
“Meanwhile Beta3-integrin
inhibitors have been at the centre of cancer drug design for over 20 years and
are well-tolerated in clinical
trials.”
“We hope that this research could revitalise interest in this
sort of therapy and lead to a re-purposing of MTAs as anti-angiogenic
inhibitors, in combination with targeting Beta3 integrin.”
According to Cancer Research UK,
more than 360,000 new cancer cases are diagnosed every year, based on 2013 to
2015 figures. In 2015 alone, around 183,000 men were diagnosed with concern and
around 177,000 women were diagnosed. Breast, prostate, lung and bowel cancers
are the most commonly diagnosed cancers. 2016 statistics reveal around 450
people die every day from cancer – more than quarter of all deaths in the
country.
Source: http://bit.ly/2xmchsz
https://www.express.co.uk/
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