New cancer treatment uses body’s cellular waste disposal to flag harmful proteins

The new treatment ‘provides hope of treating diseases previously thought to be undruggable’

The new anti-cancer drugs are already producing some good results and are expected to be used more in the future after the opening of the Centre for Protein Degradation (pictured: stock image) (PA)

A new cancer treatment is being developed by scientists that utilises the body’s waste disposal system to flag harmful proteins.

Unlike other cancer drugs - which block the function of harmful proteins - this new medicine eradicates them completely.

The new anti-cancer drugs are already producing some good results and are expected to be used more in the future after the opening of the Centre for Protein Degradation, which will house fifteen researchers using the pioneering new treatment programme.

It was funded after a £9m donation from the Institute of Cancer Research, which partners with The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust in London, and is known for new discoveries in cancer treatment.

The website of the new centre says the new treatment “provides hope of treating diseases previously thought to be undruggable.”

Professor Ian Collins, head of the new centre, said: “Our cells have evolved a highly efficient technique for removing harmful proteins. It’s part of the everyday business of life. However, our cells’ protein degradation processes only recognise a specific number of proteins.

“Science has now found a way to add to that number – to put flags on to new proteins that the cell wouldn’t otherwise touch but which we now realise are harmful and involved in tumour development.

“We are saying to our cells: please can you add this harmful protein to the trash that you are taking out?”

One example of the approach is the drug lenalidomide which is used to treat myeloma, a blood cancer, by pinpointing a specific molecule that would otherwise continue to promote the cancer.

Professor Collins adds: “Essentially, it makes it visible to the cell’s waste disposal machinery. It flags it up for disposal and ensures it is shredded and destroyed.”

A drug called a selective oestrogen receptor does a similar thing for breast cancer by targeting a specific protein that promotes the disease.

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