Testing existing drugs in new combinations for high-risk neuroblastoma

During normal growth and development of the body, our cells are constantly being replaced. As new cells are made, the number of older cells needs to decrease to maintain the correct number of cells. In order to maintain this controlled growth, cells are programmed to die at a certain point. Whether this programmed cell death is triggered or not is due to the amount of different proteins in the cell, which can either push for cell death or prevent it.

Whilst normal cells cannot escape their fate, cancer cells can resist programmed cell death and continue to survive and multiply, in part because they have more pro-survival proteins. Drug companies have developed medicines that can stop pro-survival proteins from working, but there can be side effects and cells can become resistant to the medicine. Limiting the dose of the medicine and using effective drug combinations could help prevent these negative effects.

Dr Karim Malik and his team work at the University of Bristol. His studies have shown that using a second drug in combination with medicines that stop pro-survival proteins from working can lead to neuroblastoma cell death. This is despite using around 100-times less of the medicine that stops pro-survival proteins. Using a combination of drugs could therefore lead to a specific treatment that kills neuroblastoma cells, reducing the risk of relapse and limiting the side effects patients experience.

With this project, Dr Karim Malik hopes to prove the usefulness of this type of combination treatment for high-risk neuroblastoma patients who do not have many treatment options. As the drugs being tested are already approved for use, this could help patients sooner.