Scientists at The Institute of Cancer Research have discovered an exciting new target in the fight to stop the spread of cancer cells which could significantly improve treatment by replacing traditional chemotherapy.
Deregulated proteins are the driving force behind the uncontrolled growth of cancer cells. Institute structural biologists, funded by The Wellcome Trust, have now shown how these proteins are able to survive, in spite of being damaged.
The key lies in the discovery of the atomic structure of the protein Cdc37. One end of Cdc37 binds the proteins which control cell growth but which can become deregulated and cause cancer while the other end binds a molecule called Hsp90 which helps these proteins fold into the correct, active structure.
By attaching themselves to Cdc37, the deregulated proteins are rescued by Hsp90 which is known as a molecular chaperone, even though these proteins may now be having a destructive effect within the cell.
So Cdc37 rescues the cancer-driving protein by acting as a carrier, allowing it to continue on its destructive path. This discovery has presented scientists working in cancer therapeutics with the challenge of developing new drugs to block this process and prevent the rescue of the deregulated protein.
This could help transform the way cancer patients are treated and replace traditional chemotherapy, since cancer cells would be targeted directly, avoiding any damage to other healthy cells within the body.
The scientists’ detailed structural description will allow The Institute’s experts in cancer therapeutics to design new and highly specific drugs that will stop Cdc37 from binding to Hsp90, thereby depriving the uncontrolled proteins of the help they need to drive cancer.
Professor Laurence Pearl, Chairman of the Section of Structural Biology at The Institute of Cancer Research explains:
“Although this is very basic science, understanding the molecular structure and function of the proteins that drive cancer is crucial to the development of the new generation of drugs that actually target what goes wrong in a cancer cell, so that this kind of research feeds directly into patient treatments.
The Hsp90 system is a particularly attractive target as the cancer-driving proteins in many different types of cancer depend on this chaperone, so one drug may be of value in treating many different forms of the disease.“