Scientists from the University of Colorado at Boulder have discovered a protein that by blocking can destroy ovarian and breast cancers without harming healthy cells. Research published in the journal molecular cell.
About 250,000 women worldwide are diagnosed with breast cancer each year, and another 20,000 are diagnosed with ovarian cancer, one of the deadliest types of tumors. At the same time, ovarian tumors develop resistance to treatment in 80% of women.
In cell experiments, scientists found that the APE2 protein plays a central role in repairing damaged DNA in cancer cells. Blocking this protein caused mutations in the cancer cells’ DNA to accumulate and die.
At the same time, healthy cells were not bound to APE2 and thus were not damaged when blocked. Now scientists are looking for possible drugs that could block the action of APE2 in animals and humans.