New breast cancer therapy targets ‘aggressive’ protein

Scientists have discovered a molecular “switch” that makes cells in breast cancer tumors become aggressive.

Compared to normal cells, cancer cells experience higher oxidative stress, which is the imbalance between the production of free radicals and the body’s antioxidant defenses. An antioxidant protein called manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD) is essential for cancer cells to cope with their high oxidative stress.

Too much MnSOD can cause a localized tumor to become aggressive and spread to neighboring organs, the new research shows.

This is especially true for triple negative breast cancer, a subtype of estrogen-independent breast cancer, which affects about 13 percent of all female breast cancer patients worldwide.

“MnSOD expression is decreased during the initial stages of cancer development. However, as the cancer advances, MnSOD expression increases and such high MnSOD levels are typically observed in triple negative breast cancer patients,” explains Loo Ser Yue, first author of the study and a former graduate student at the National University of Singapore (NUS).

“In fact, we have shown that less aggressive tumors, when artificially made to increase MnSOD protein levels, adopt an aggressive behavior.

“Our study shows that the amount of MnSOD levels in the tumor cell determines the predominant reactive oxygen species that will tell the tumor cells whether to stay put or to transform into an invasive form that is capable of moving to distal parts of the body.”

The team published their findings in the journal Antioxidants & Redox Signaling.

Due to the lack of well-defined molecular targets in triple negative breast cancer patients, current treatment options rely heavily on chemotherapy, which is highly non-specific and has adverse side effects.

Suppressing MnSOD expression or activity may make the tumors less aggressive and more sensitive to chemotherapy and conventional anticancer drugs, thereby improving treatment outcomes, says Alan Prem Kumar, a research assistant professor at NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine.

The new approach would also resensitize patients who had developed resistance to such conventional drugs and could possibly be used in the treatment of aggressive cancers beyond breast cancer.

Moving forward, the team hopes to design small molecules targeting MnSOD to selectively kill cancer cells.

Source: National University of Singapore

Original Study DOI: 10.1089/ars.2015.6524