New genes and natural toxins offer hope for cancer patients unresponsive to chemotherapy

Scientists from Queen Mary University of London have discovered two new genes that cause head and neck cancer patients to be resistant to chemotherapy, and that silencing either gene can make cancer cells previously unresponsive to chemotherapy subsequently respond to it.

The two genes discovered actively ‘work’ in most human cancer types, meaning the findings could potentially extend to other cancers with elevated levels of the genes.

The researchers also looked through a chemical library, commonly used for drug discovery, and found two substances that could target the two genes specifically and make resistant cancer cells almost 30 times more sensitive to a common chemotherapy drug called cisplatin.

They do this by reducing the levels of the two genes and could be given alongside existing chemotherapy treatments such as cisplatin. One of these substances is a fungal toxin - Sirodesmin A - and the other – Carfilzomib - comes from a bacterium. This shows that there may be existing drugs that can be repurposed to target new causes of disease, which can be cheaper than having to develop and produce new ones.

The research, led by Queen Mary is the first evidence for the genes NEK2 and INHBA causing chemoresistance in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) and gene silencing of either gene overturning chemoresistance to multiple drugs.

Reference: Dr. Muy-Teck Teh et al, Journal: Molecular Cancer