New method enabling therapeutical targeting of lactate transporters

Bild: Franzi Kreis/CeMM - Scientists from the Giulio Superti-Furga Lab at CeMM, the Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, have developed a new method that allows the discovery of specific inhibitors of a lactate transporter associated with cancer and other disease areas. The compound identified in the assay system could provide a new starting point for cancer treatments. The study has now been published in Cell Chemical Biology. Transporter proteins, including their largest class, the solute carrier (SLC) family, are proteins that are mostly located in the cell membrane and are responsible for the supply and removal of nutrients such as amino acids, sugars and nucleotides in a cell. They are key players in cell metabolism and play an essential role in health and disease. Despite their vital physiological role and although they are considered attractive therapeutic targets, most SLCs have not yet been adequately studied pharmacologically. This is precisely what numerous scientists in the research group of Giulio Superti-Furga, Scientific Director at the CeMM the Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, and professor at the Medical University of Vienna, are working on.