Daniel Durocher’s lab designed a new drug with CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technology that blocks an enzyme essential for the survival of certain cancer cells (photo courtesy of Sinai Health)
Daniel Durocher's lab designed a new drug with CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technology that blocks an enzyme essential for the survival of certain cancer cells (photo courtesy of Sinai Health) Scientists at Sinai Health and the University of Toronto say a new drug designed to block an enzyme essential for the survival of certain cancer cells shows promise in curbing tumour growth. The preclinical findings, published this month in the journal Nature , describe a new drug designed with CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technology in the lab of Daniel Durocher , a senior investigator at Sinai Health's Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute (LTRI) and a professor of molecular genetics in University of Toronto's Temerty Faculty of Medicine. The researchers identified genes that are essential for the viability of CCNE1 amplified cancer cells, which are characteristic of some hard-to-treat ovarian, endometrial and bladder cancers. They found the enzyme PKMYT1 is essential in CCNE1 amplified cells, but not in otherwise healthy cells. In collaboration with precision oncology company Repare Therapeutics, the team developed a drug called RP-6306, which blocks PKMYT1 activity and effectively kills the cancer cell. "These cancer cells depend on the PKMYT1 enzyme to survive," said Durocher. "Our preclinical data show enormous promise in the drug RP-6306's ability to target these types of tumours and profoundly inhibit tumour growth." Currently, tumors with CCNE1 amplification have very few therapeutic options.
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