A group of researchers from Arizona State University and University of Arizona have published their work on a new treatment that may prevent the spread of cancer cells. The study, featured in the Nature Communications journal, centers on an experimental molecule.
The work highlights the significance of peptide 2012, a lab-engineered molecule to help with disrupting cancer cells. Cancer cells spread thanks to a protein known as focal adhesion kinase that lets these cells form connections.
But the peptide molecule prevents such connections from occurring and inhibits cancer cells from spreading.
Petra Fromme is a professor at the ASU School of Molecular Sciences and explains that side effects have occurred from using small molecules in research.
“So when you have a small molecule, they are normally metabolized in the liver. That means degraded by the body in the liver. And thereby often side products are formed, which could be toxic to the liver," she said
Fromme says the team expects to bring a peptide with fewer side effects to future clinical trials.
“So therefore, the drugs which we have to develop have to inhibit all the cancer cells and not the focal adhesion complex normal cells," she said.
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