Scientists from Sanford Burnham Prebys have figured out how to destroy prostate cancer cells at the cellular level by blockade the activities of an enzyme.
Researchers recently found an exciting breakthrough: they discovered a way to kill prostate cancer cells by attacking one specific enzyme. This enzyme is called PI5P4Kα and the findings were published in the Science Advances journal. Because of this discovery, doctors may be able to make better treatments for other cancers, like breast cancer, skin cancer or pancreatic cancer.
Experts have recently figured out that an enzyme may play a role in prostate cancer. It could also be connected to other types of cancer too. Researchers at Sanford Burnham Prebys are trying to use as many methods as possible to fight against cancer, so it does not become resistant.
Sometimes prostate cancer can be treated with medications that reduce the amount of male hormones in our body. But, unfortunately, there are some cases where it just doesn’t work and the cancer spreads around the body quickly and becomes very dangerous. To stop this from happening, we need to know why some types of cancer are resistant so that we can find new ways to treat them.
The prostate gland needs special hormones called “androgens” to grow. Prostate cancer takes over the androgen pathways in the prostate, making it grow very quickly – so treatments which stop this growth are effective.
Scientists have discovered an enzyme that could be a useful weapon against prostate cancer. It may be helpful even in cases where existing treatments like medicine used to reduce hormones don’t work, or when the cancer has become resistant. This new enzyme could provide a different way to fight prostate cancer and cancers that depend on the same enzyme.
At the University of Bern, experts noticed that prostate cancer patients had high levels of a protein called PI5P4Kα. This made them think that this protein has something to do with why the cancer was hard to treat. Through testing, Emerling’s team were able to show that if you block this protein, it could stop the cancer from growing and becoming resistant to treatments.
“When we first looked at the patient data, it was so exciting that there was something to investigate,” says Emerling.
PI5P4Kα is one of many types of enzymes called PI5P4Ks which work on breaking down lipids, a group of molecules like fats, hormones and vitamins. Even though people have been researching cancer metabolism for many years, just recently has lipid metabolism become an interesting option for treating cancer.
Researchers think that treatments that help with lipid metabolism can be really useful, so they’re trying to make drugs to target a special enzyme. Companies are also trying to develop their own drugs for this purpose. Everyone is hopeful that this kind of treatment will work out in the future.
She said, “I really hope we will have a drug ready to test soon. It would be awesome!”
Researchers recently discovered a new link between an enzyme called PI5P4Kα and prostate cancer. Studies suggest that this enzyme helps cancer cells use energy from food to survive, making it an important factor in tumor growth. In addition, when the enzyme is blocked by drugs that target androgen receptors, it could be used as a treatment for prostate cancer patients. This discovery was published in Science Advances on February 1st, 2023.
The study was carried out by a group of researchers from different universities such as University of Bern, University of Basel, Sanford Burnham Prebys, Weill Cornell Medicine and University of Lausanne. The members of this research team include Joanna Triscott, Matthias Reist, Lukas Küng, Francielle C. Moselle, Marika Lehner Simone de Brot, John Gallon, Salvatore Piscuoglio, Archna Ravi, Gurpreet K. Arora ,Mark Lundquist, Lewis C. Cantley, Hector Gallart-Ayala and Julijana Ivanisevic.
This study was helped by a few really important organizations including the Swiss National Science Foundation, the EU Commission, The Johanna Dürmüller-Bol Foundation and some other groups. Brooke Emerling was supported by some stuff like an NCI contract and ACS grant. Lewis Cantley got support from the National Cancer Institute too. Lastly, the metabolomics platform received help from SNF with financing. All of this was possible thanks to money being given by the Englander Institute for Precision Medicine.
