Nat commin: scientists use decoys to hook up tumors and treat them!

April 28, 2019 / BIOON / - scientists are becoming "cunning" and using deception to fight cancer Researchers at the University of Hebrew have developed a lure that blocks RNA binding proteins that cancer uses to metastasize In recent years, it has become an indisputable fact that RNA binding proteins play an important role in tumor growth These proteins are very active in all cells, especially in cancer cells They combine with RNA molecules to accelerate the growth of cancer cells Unfortunately, there is no cancer treatment for these proteins Photo source: in a new study published in nature communications recently, Professor ROTEM Karni and his team from Hebrew University demonstrated a new technology to fight cancer They designed a decoy molecule that decoys RNA binding proteins to bind to it Once combined with RNA, these RNA binding proteins can no longer bind to the natural RNA molecules in cancer cells, thus losing their cancer promoting activity These "sterile" RNA molecular decoys are called oligonucleotides "Our technology is a new way to fight cancer By understanding the biological function of RNA binding proteins, we have successfully designed decoy molecules that can inhibit these proteins, which makes us a step closer to the creation of anticancer drugs " Professor Karni and his team have developed several deceptive molecules that inhibit RNA binding proteins [RK1] that accelerate brain and breast cancer growth To test these lures, they used bait molecules to treat brain cancer cells When the cells were injected into healthy mice, the cancer cells stopped replicating, and soon the tumor disappeared Although the study tested the effects of bait molecules on breast and brain cancer cells, Karni explained that his technology allowed scientists to tailor bait to other types of cancer, simplifying and improving the treatment of cancer patients "We also need to check the toxicity of these bait molecules and test their effects on animals before we can test them in humans," Karni warned But I'm optimistic because we've successfully created decoy oligonucleotides that inhibit RNA binding proteins in other types of cancer " Reference: Polina denichenko et al Specific initiation of spreading factor activity by decoy RNA oligogonucleotides, nature communications (2019) Doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-09523-0