New therapy for pharmacological degradation of AKT could be effective in many cancers – Edexlive

A team of researchers has developed a new therapy that may be effective for different types of cancer. The study, published in the journal Cancer Discovery, indicates that the therapeutic agent shows high efficacy in vitro in disrupting a biological pathway that helps cancer survive.

“Translating these findings into effective cancer therapies for patients is a high priority,” said researcher Jian Jin from Mount Sinai in the United States. According to the researchers, the therapy is a modified molecule, MS21, which causes the breakdown of AKT, an overactive enzyme in many cancers.

This study found that pharmacological degradation of AKT is a viable treatment for cancers with mutations in certain genes, the researchers said.

AKT is a cancer gene that codes for an enzyme that is frequently abnormally activated in cancer cells to stimulate tumor growth. AKT degradation reverses these processes and inhibits tumor growth.

“Our study lays a solid foundation for the clinical development of an AKT degrader for the treatment of human cancers with certain genetic mutations,” said co-author Ramon Parsons of the university.

“Examination of 44,000 human cancers identified that 19% of tumors have at least one of these mutations, suggesting that a large population of cancer patients could benefit from therapy with an AKT degrading agent such as MS21,” added Ramon.

MS21 has been tested on human cancer-derived cell lines, which are models used in laboratories to study the effectiveness of cancer therapies. Researchers are looking to develop MS21 with an industrial partner to open clinical trials for patients.