A team from the Center for Genomic Regulation (CRG), led by Isabelle Vernós, has recently identified a specific protein, the polyglutamylase enzyme TTLL11, as a new target to develop new drugs that improve the arsenal of therapies currently available to combat breast cancer. , responsible for the highest number of cancer deaths in women.
In previous studies, the team has discovered that levels of this enzyme are reduced in cancer cells, but at the same time, the cells appear to require minimal levels of TTLL11 activity to survive and proliferate. The group is now investigating whether eliminating this enzyme, and thus altering the dynamics of microtubules, key to cell division, causes the death of breast cancer cells. For the project, the researchers have selected several cell lines representative of different types of breast cancer. For each of them, they will eliminate the expression of TTLL11 using silencing techniques to assess the consequences on their proliferation capacity. Additionally, they will study whether this silencing can sensitize cancer cells to some of the drugs currently used in chemotherapy. If this were the case, it would allow therapies to be adjusted, reducing doses and therefore toxicity.
If successful, it would be a significant advance in the field. It would allow the development of a new class of drugs to alter the dynamics of microtubules, therefore, within an already validated strategy to combat tumors. “It would represent a new therapeutic strategy, which would be especially relevant for patients with triple-negative tumors who lack effective therapeutic alternatives,” states Vernós. The longer-term goal will be the development of TTLL11 inhibitor compounds for use in therapy. And the group, explains the biochemist, is already working on the identification of this type of compounds to achieve this.
Transparency statement: This research is funded by the "la Caixa" Foundation, an entity that supports the Big Vang scientific information channel.
