Princeton University: natural proteins inhibit the growth of triple negative breast cancer

Naturally occurring proteins may offer hope to thousands of women with the deadliest form of breast cancer One study found that tinagl1, a protein found in the kidneys, inhibited the growth of triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) in the laboratory Scientists have found that the protein targets signals that cause disease to spread and grow wild
Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) lacks the three most common receptors, which not only aggravates breast cancer, but also can cope with common hormone therapy, such as tamoxifen, making the disease particularly difficult to treat The study was conducted by Princeton University and led by Professor Yibin Kang of the Department of molecular biology "People are trying to stop the spread of this cancer, but so far attempts have failed because if you try a way, cancer cells can compensate by looking for ways to escape," he said Breast cancer affects about one eighth of women in the United States and Britain at some point in their lives Among them, 15% were three negative breast cancer (TNBC) TNBC tumors lack estrogen and progesterone, as well as HER-2 protein This means that treatments for these hormones and proteins are ineffective, but chemotherapy is still an option TNBC patients had the worst prognosis and metastasis free survival among all major breast cancer subtypes, the authors wrote in the journal cancer cells After diagnosis, only 77% of TNBC women survived for five years, compared with 93% of other forms of breast cancer The researchers analyzed more than 800 breast cancer samples from patients The results showed that patients with low tinagl1 gene activity were more likely to come from patients with advanced cancer and poor survival prospects Tumors with higher levels of tinagl1 were associated with better patient outcomes Tinagl1 is also present in muscle and uterine blood vessels and interacts with structural proteins such as collagen to help different receptors bind together The researchers then gave laboratory versions of the protein to mice with breast cancer for more than seven weeks This suppresses tumor growth in rodents and reduces the risk of its spread to the lungs Even after the tumor began to spread, it did not cause serious side effects Tinagl 1 acts on two ways to make TNBC both aggressive and difficult to treat It first targets the mutated tumor promoting gene EGFR, which signals cancer cells to proliferate and spread It also interferes with a protein called focal adhesion kinase (FAK), which promotes the migration, growth and survival of cancer cells Professor Kang said that with this new method, treatment can block both ways at the same time "One stone, two birds."