Targeting lung cancer's cellular shipping system could offer a new way to slow tumor growth
A UTHealth Houston-led team has identified a promising new avenue to curb the growth and spread of tumors associated with hard-to-treat lung and other cancers.
Scientists at UTHealth Houston have discovered a potential new approach to slow the growth of tumors in lung cancer. The research, led by Dr. Xiaochao Tan, focused on the Golgi apparatus, a cellular component responsible for modifying, sorting, and packaging proteins. In non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), a subtype responsible for most lung cancer cases, an abnormal piece of DNA called chromosome 3q leads to an overproduction of an enzyme called phospholipase D1 (PLD1).
This enzyme allows cancer cells to release cancer-promoting materials, facilitating tumor growth. By delivering a drug directly to cancer cells that inhibits PLD1, researchers found that tumor growth was significantly slowed in mouse models without causing adverse side effects. This finding suggests that targeting the Golgi secretory machinery could be a promising treatment option for various cancers, including head and neck and esophageal cancers with extra copies of chromosome 3q.
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