Scientific reports: oral cholesterol analogues significantly inhibit metastatic lung cancer

June 18, 2018 / BIOON / - according to researchers from UCLA, a compound that mimics the main protein in high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol can significantly reduce the number of lung cancer in mice This finding helps to explain the relationship between HDL cholesterol and cancer risk reduction, indicating that similar compounds may also have therapeutic effects in humans The related research results were recently published in scientific reports, entitled "treating the intent with oral apoA-I metric tg6f reductions tumor burden in mouse models of metastatic lung cancer" Photo source: Red Andr / Wikipedia's past experiments in laboratory animals and humans have shown that high levels of HDL cholesterol are associated with reduced cancer risk A previous study by the team found that HDL protein analogues can delay tumor growth in mice, but the exact mechanism is unclear In the new study, the researchers aim to find out whether and how the compound, called tg6f, changes the immune system of small intestine and distal organs The team used a mouse model of lung cancer, where they injected cancer cells into the tail vein of the mice, which then migrated to the lungs to form tumors One group of mice began to take tg6f orally at the time of injection of cancer cells, while the other group took inactive compounds After four weeks of treatment, the number of lung tumors in mice treated with tg6f was 75% less than that in the control group The team also looked at how the compound works against cancer They found that tg6f can change lipid metabolism in the small intestine, which in turn can change the types of immune cells in the intestine and lungs and their gene expression In particular, tg6f supplementation increased the gene expression related to the signal pathway of leukocytes into tumors and decreased the gene expression related to tumor growth This study reveals the mechanism by which good cholesterol reduces cancer risk and highlights the importance of the small intestine in the immune response to distant organs These results suggest that oral compounds may be useful in the treatment of human lung cancer, and the team's next step is to study whether tg6f can inhibit tumor growth in other organs of the body Reference: arnab Chattopadhyay et al Treating the intent with oral apoA-I metric tg6f reduces tumor burden in mouse models of metastatic lung cancer, scientific reports (2018) Doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-26755-0