Potential new therapeutic target for pancreatic cancer discovered
The team then administered the drug rapamycin — an mTOR inhibitor — to mice with established pancreatic tumors, finding that rapamycin increased tumor cell death and decreased the growth of tumors with reduced G alpha 13 expression.
The findings establish a previously unrecognized tumor-suppressive role of Galpha13 in pancreatic cancer and suggests that targeting the mTOR signaling pathway in human pancreatic tumors with decreased expression may be efficacious.
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They also showed that human and mice pancreatic tumors with reduced G alpha 13 exhibited increased mTOR signaling, and targeting the mTOR signaling pathway reduced tumor growth in the mice.
“We believe that pancreatic cancer patients whose tumors have a reduced expression of G alpha 13 might benefit from therapies targeting the mTOR signaling pathway,” said Mario A. Shields, ’12 PhD, research assistant professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology and Oncology and lead author of the study.
While most patients with pancreatic cancer have historically responded poorly to targeted therapies, including rapamycin, the current findings may help better identify pancreatic cancer patients who could benefit from therapies targeting the mTOR signaling pathway.
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