Promising result in blood cancer tests
AN experimental drug that prevents cancer cells from having eternal life has been able to eradicate blood cancer in mice.
This drug had shown promise when tested on cells in a petri dish, but until now there has been no way to test the MCL-1 inhibitor in a step closer to humans.
But Melbourne researchers have now developed a model using mice that mimics human tumours.
They can test the drug on that, enabling them to answer important questions about which patients it will work on, and with what combination of treatments.
Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research scientists say this drug is a similar class of drug to the powerful Venetoclax tablet developed at the institute.
That “melts” cancer cells and leaves one in five endstage patients cancer-free.
Lead researcher, PhD student Margs Brennan, said her team — also led by Dr Gemma Kelly and Associate Professor Marco Herold — were approached by French pharmaceutical company Servier to develop a model that could accurately predict how the drug worked in humans.
“We need to get as much information about how these drugs work before they go into humans,” Ms Brennan said.
“We do a lot of cell culture work in the dish, but it’s really important to target the cancer cells in their native environment where they’re getting signals from other organs and other parts of the body.”
Ms Brennan said many cancers, particularly blood cancer, depended on the protein MCL-1 for their survival, and the drug worked to inhibit this function and remove their ability to have eternal life.
In mice with Burkitt’s lymphoma, they replaced the mouse’s gene with the human version and treated them with the inhibitor. This led to remission in 60 per of mice and no side effects.
When used alongside a chemotherapy, it cleared almost all mice of cancer.
The findings have been published in the journal Blood.
“The next big thing is to work out what combination of treatments is best for what patient. Our model will help with this,” Ms Brennan said.
“Other labs have shown MCL-1 is important in some breast cancers and maybe some lung cancers as well.”
The information has been released to the general scientific community, and laboratories around the world will be able to order these specially bred mice from Melbourne to conduct their own studies in the fight against cancer.