Gene therapy kills breast cancer stem cells

Gene therapy targeting breast cancer cells switched off a key gene that allows them to grow.

MD Anderson Cancer Centre: 12 September 2011

Technyou

Not the most user-friendly media release, but essentially the researchers have designed a fat-based vehicle to deliver a gene called  BikDD into breast cancer cells. This gene blocks the activity or function of three proteins that are vital for breast cancer tumour growth. These 3 proteins are also responsible for many tumours’ resistance to chemotherapy treatment.

They have managed to design the vehicle (called VISA in the media release)  to target just the breast cancer. I am unsure how they have done this, but it has something to do with the use of a protein that is over-expressed in breast cancer cells.

This research has only been done in mice and with cells in the petri dish. They are planning to start Phase 1 clinical trials.

There is a link to the published paper in the media release.