Science Sub-Journal: A new method to eradicate breast cancer

A new treatment for breast cancer killed 95-100% of cancer cells in mouse models of human estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer and their metastases in bone, brain, liver, and lungs

A research team led by scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign reported the discovery in the journal Science Translational Medicine

"Even if a small number of breast cancer cells survive, allowing the tumor to regenerate within a few months, the regenerated tumor is still fully susceptible to ErSO retreatment," said David Shapiro, a professor of biochemistry at the University of Michigan, who and Illinois State chemistry professor Paul Hegenrosser led the research together

The activity of ErSO depends on a protein called the estrogen receptor, which is present in a high percentage of breast tumors

Shapiro said: "a-upr has been activated, but it is at a low level in many breast cancer cells

Shapiro and former University of Michigan medical scholar Neal Andruska first discovered the a-upr pathway in 2014 and reported the development of a compound that promotes the acceleration and selectivity of the a-upr pathway To kill breast cancer cells that contain estrogen receptors

Graduate student Darjan Duraki said: "Because this pathway has been turned on in cancer cells, we can easily overactivate it, thereby turning breast cancer cells into lethal mode

Although the original compound prevented the growth of breast cancer cells, it did not kill them quickly, and it also produced unpleasant side effects

"This expected UPR depends on the estrogen receptor," Hergenrother said

Shapiro said that ErSO is different from drugs commonly used to treat estrogen receptor-positive cancers

He said: "This is not another version of tamoxifen or haloperidol.

Boudreau said: "Since about 75% of breast cancers are positive for estrogen receptors, ErSO has the potential to fight the most common breast cancer

Further research has shown that exposure to drugs has no effect on their reproductive development

Researchers report that ErSO can also act quickly, even on advanced human breast cancer tumors in mice

Shapiro said: "Many breast cancer patients have reduced by more than 99% in just three days

The researchers said that Bayer Pharmaceuticals has approved the new drug and will explore its potential for further research in human clinical trials for estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer

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The paper "A small-molecule activator of the unfolded protein response eradicates human breast tumors in mice" is available online and from the U.
of I.
News Bureau.
DOI: 10.
1126/scitranslmed.
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