Funded by The Little Princess Trust and administered by CCLG
Lead investigator: Professor Karim Malik, University of Bristol
Award: £61,069.39
Awarded July 2024
Genes contain the information your body needs to produce all the proteins necessary for normal cell growth. However, some genes are capable of making more than one version of a protein. In many cancers, such as neuroblastoma, one of these genes sends incorrect versions of the instructions for a protein. This means that the cancer cell makes a special protein that helps it grow and survive. Therefore, it is really important to control the multiple messages produced by this gene. Alterations of the correct message can mean that cells grow dramatically out of control, making the cancer difficult to treat.
In our cells, these messages are in the form of a molecule called ‘messenger RNA’, or ‘mRNA’ for short. Researchers have identified many mRNA messages that are altered in childhood cancers. These cannot be corrected at the source, but it is possible to correct the cancer-related mRNAs that are produced using medicine. There are already examples of treatments like this in other diseases.
In this project, Professor Karim Malik and his team at the University of Bristol will evaluate whether correcting cancer-associated messages could be a good way to kill cancer cells. The team aim to provide early evidence to support this as a new childhood cancer treatment. Professor Malik believes it could be a good option for neuroblastoma, as this cancer uses a lot of incorrect mRNA messages. As well as being a new way to fight cancer, the treatment would hopefully not be associated with the kind of negative side effects that many current childhood cancer treatments have.