Geneva researchers decipher mechanism of cancer drug
Published: Wednesday, Mar 20th 2024, 19:01
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Researchers in Geneva have decoded the mechanism behind a drug against breast and ovarian cancer more precisely. This paves the way for cancer therapies with fewer side effects, the University of Geneva announced on Wednesday.
Specifically, the researchers investigated so-called parp inhibitors. These are drugs that block the repair of damage to the genetic material (DNA). Cancer cells divide quickly and have many errors in their genetic material. Parp inhibitors prevent these errors from being repaired, causing the cancer cells to die.
Clinical studies have shown that women with BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations in particular benefit from treatment with Parp inhibitors. Women with these mutations are also particularly at risk of developing breast or ovarian cancer.
Mechanism poorly understood so far
The problem with these parp inhibitors is that they not only cause cancer cells to commit suicide, but also healthy cells that divide quickly, such as blood cells. However, the mechanism by which parp inhibitors kill cells is not yet sufficiently understood, according to the University of Geneva.
In their study published on Wednesday in the journal "Nature", the researchers showed a way in which these drugs could attack fewer healthy cells.
The Parp inhibitors perform two functions, as the researchers were able to show: On the one hand, they block the emission of an alarm signal that normally attracts the proteins for DNA repair. On the other hand, they capture the Parp proteins when they are docked to the DNA.
According to the researchers, this second part, the capture of the proteins, is mainly responsible for the fact that healthy cells are also killed. If only the first part were blocked, treatments with fewer side effects would be possible.
©Keystone/SDA
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