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Discovered drug against psoriasis reduces cancer growth
Cancer is a serious disease that affects many people worldwide. Physicians and scientists are therefore intensively searching for new ways to treat cancers more effectively. At the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), for example, a promising drug is currently being tested to combat tumors in the immune system.
Cancer cells have forgotten how to respond to signals that are normally used to initiate preprogrammed cell death. However, the tested drug may seem to restore this lost ability. This restricts cancer growth and slows metastasis of existing tumors. A promising approach to cancer therapy.
Cancer is a dangerous disease that kills many people worldwide every year. Scientists from the German Cancer Research Center have now discovered that a drug against psoriasis can also help treat cancerous tumors. (Image: vitanovski / fotolia.com) Scientists at the German Cancer Research Center have found that psoriasis (psoriasis) can help slow down the growth and metastasis of cancerous tumors. The drug causes cancer cells to react again to lost signals, which usually initiate the so-called apoptosis. Under this one understands a kind of suicide program of individual cells. The experts from the Cancer Research Center published a press release with the results of their investigation.
The Sézary syndrome
There are so-called cutaneous T-cell lymphomas in the human body, which predominantly occur on the human skin. This malignant disease usually begins at the age of 50 and affects men more often than women (2: 1). The lymphomas are formed by degenerate T cells of our immune system, explain the authors. There is a special form of this tumor, which is known by the term Sézary syndrome. So far there is no cure for this disease. In Sézary syndrome, degenerate cells are not only formed on the skin, they can also be found in the blood of sick people, say the scientists. Unfortunately, from there they are also able to infect the other human organs.
Many cancer medications trigger apoptosis
The danger and malignancy of the so-called Sézary syndrome is mainly due to the fact that the cancer cells no longer respond to certain signals, explain the experts. These signals are usually intended to induce apoptosis, a form of programmed cell death. Since this is omitted, the treatment of the disease is considerably more difficult. Because most cancer drugs rely on triggering a targeted apoptosis of degenerate cells, add the physicians.
Disabling survival factor of cancer cells
Fortunately, researchers from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) have now succeeded in eliminating the survival factor in tumor cells. This causes the programmed cell death in the cells again, explain the authors. The researchers around Karsten Gülow (DKFZ) worked together with Jan Nicolay from the Department of Dermatology of the University of Mannheim for her project.
NFkappaB makes cells resistant to apoptosis
Our human lymphoma cells contain some sort of important survival factor (NFkappaB). This is permanently active. For this reason, these cells are resistant to apoptosis, explains author Karsten Gülow. Scientists have been trying to use drugs to inhibit or eliminate this factor. Unfortunately, these inhibitors were too toxic to be used as a safe, safe drug, the researchers add.
Scientists are testing the effects of dimethyl fumarate (DMF) on cancer
The specialists from the German Cancer Research Center and the University of Mannheim first tested the drug dimethylfumarate (DMF) in cutaneous T-cell lymphoma. This also acts against NfkappaB, explain the authors. The drug is already approved for multiple sclerosis and psoriasis (psoriasis) as a drug. This is a great advantage, as much is already known about existing side effects and the time can be saved for a complete new development.
DMF causes cancerous tumors to grow more slowly and prevents the involvement of other organs
The scientists are now studying the effects of dimethyl fumarate (DMF) on the so-called T cells. These had previously isolated them from the blood of patients with Sézary syndrome. The tumor cells were then transplanted under the skin of mice. There they grew to tumors. The diseased mice were then treated with dimethyl fumarate. After completing the therapy, the physicians were able to observe that the tumors grew more slowly. In addition, it became apparent that DMF selectively kills tumor cells, but healthy cells are spared from this effect, the experts explain. Treatment with dimethyl fumarate was able to almost completely inhibit metastasis in the transplanted tumors. In other words, the drug helps prevent the infestation of other organs, the researchers add.
Equally effective and better tolerated
DMF seems to be at least as effective and better tolerated than most other drugs used to treat cutaneous lymphoma, explains Peter Krammer from the German Cancer Research Center. The new findings are very promising and for that reason we immediately began to examine the potential of the drug, adds Krammer. The study was initiated by the German Cancer Research Center in cooperation with the Department of Dermatology of the University of Mannheim and funded by the Helmholtz Alliance for Immunotherapy. (As)