Inhibiting the action of an enzyme called TAK-1 reverses pancreatic cancer resistance to chemotherapy, a finding that could lead to the development of a new way to treat the disease, researchers say.
Pancreatic cancer is resistant to every currently available anti-cancer treatment.
“During the past few years we have been studying the role played by a cytokine or regulatory protein called transforming growth factor-beta [TGFbeta] in the development of pancreatic cancer. Recently we focused our attention on a unique enzyme activated by TGFbeta, TAK-1, as a mediator for this extreme drug resistance” in pancreatic cancer, study author Dr. Davide Melisi said in a news release from the European Cancer Organization.
He and his colleagues developed a TAK-1 inhibitor and tested it on its own and in combination with the anti-cancer drugs gemcitabine, oxaliplatin and SN-38 (a metabolite of the anti-cancer drug irinotecan) in pancreatic cancer cell lines. They also tested the TAK-1 inhibitor combined with gemcitabine against pancreatic cancer in mice.
“The use of this TAK-1 inhibitor increased the sensitivity of pancreatic cells to all three chemotherapeutic drugs,” Melisi said. [click to continue…]
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