KEY TO CANCER’S EMERGENCY BRAKE UNLOCKED

The compound that activates an enzyme capable of suppressing tumours was discovered by a team at the University of Michigan in the early part of 2020.

The breakthrough is centred on PP2A, a type of enzyme produced by the human body that stops a tumour growing by breaking down proteins used by the cancer to duplicate.

There are certain compounds that can increase the activity of PP2A, helping it to kill cancer cells, but scientists didn’t understand how these compounds, or the enzyme, interacted with the tumour’s proteins. Until now.

By designing a molecule that could attach to a PP2A enzyme and using a special type of microscope, the team was able to “see precisely how different parts of the protein were brought together and stabilised by the compound,” said the study’s co-senior author Derek Taylor, an associate professor at Case Western Reserve University, in Ohio.

The team is now working on turning this knowledge into a treatment for cancer.