Understanding how a new drug can selectively fight childhood cancer cells

Like healthy cells, cancer cells contain genes that control how the cell behaves. However, cancer cells also have genetic mutations in these genes that allow them to grow out of control and invade other tissues.

Targeted treatments for cancer are mostly based on the idea that these mutations also create unique weaknesses. They kill cancer cells by fighting the mutant gene, while sparing normal cells without the mutation. However, these drugs don’t work for children that don’t have a relevant mutation. It is also becoming less likely that scientists will find new mutations to target because we have already found so many. Therefore, we need new approaches for targeted treatments.

Cancer cells often have differences in the amounts of certain proteins, in part to support their out-of-control growth. One of these proteins is something called a ‘growth factor’.  When this protein sticks to its receptor in the cancer cell, it helps the cell grow more.

Dr Igor Vivanco’s team at King’s College London has found a drug that interferes with the cell’s internal protein delivery system. It can kill cancer cells with unusually high levels of this growth factor. They found that this drug causes the growth factor’s receptor to be relocated inside cancer cells. When the receptor is moved from its normal location, Dr Vivanco believes that it turns from a helpful, growth-promoting protein into a suicide protein that kills cancer cells. Excitingly, this drug seems effective at killing cancer cells across every type of cancer tested. This suggests it could be a useful treatment for multiple childhood cancers.

In this project, Dr Vivanco and his team will explore how the change in the receptor’s location generates a ‘suicide’ signal in cancer cells. They will also test the drug in multiple types of lab-grown childhood cancer cells with high and low levels of the growth factor. This project will provide evidence that changing the location of proteins, like the receptor, in cancer cells could be a new approach to cancer treatment development.