Written by Xantha Leatham, Deputy Science Editor, Daily Mail
15:11 January 29, 2024, Updated 15:29 January 29, 2024
- Some cancers are treated with immunotherapy (drugs that attack cancer cells)
- Scientists have discovered a way that may make drugs more effective
Cancer patients could benefit from a new discovery linking DNA to treatment success after experts discovered a “critical weakness” in the devastating disease.
Certain types of cancer are treated with varying degrees of success with immunotherapy (drugs that use the body’s natural defenses to attack cancer cells).
Now, scientists have discovered a way that can increase the effectiveness of drugs. It all has to do with the “energy factory” within the tumor.
All living cells are powered by special compartments called mitochondria that produce energy.
Experts have found that by “rewiring” mitochondrial DNA, tumors can be up to 2.5 times more likely to respond to drugs.
They accomplished this by focusing on a common immunotherapy drug called nivolumab, which is used to treat melanoma, lung cancer, liver cancer, colorectal cancer, and more.
It works by releasing the “brakes” on the immune system that attack cancer cells.
Experiments revealed that nivolumab was up to 2.5 times more effective when tumors had high levels of mitochondrial DNA mutations.
This could allow doctors to understand which patients would benefit most from immunotherapy before starting treatment, the scientists said.
But scientists also believe that mimicking the effects of DNA mutations could make treatment-resistant cancers more susceptible to immunotherapy, potentially allowing thousands more cancer patients to benefit from the drugs. I also think it will.
“Cancer is a disease of our own bodies,” said Dr Payam Gammage, co-lead author and group leader at CRUK’s Scottish Institute and the University of Glasgow.
“Cancer cells look like healthy cells on the outside, so getting the immune system to recognize and destroy them is a complex task.
“More than half of cancers have mutations in their mitochondrial DNA. But when we manipulated these mutations in the lab, we found that tumors with the most mutations in mitochondrial DNA were much more sensitive to immunotherapy. Ta.
“Thanks to this research, we now have a powerful tool that provides an entirely new approach to halting cancer progression.”
The technology behind this discovery is now the subject of a patent filed by Cancer Research Horizons, CRUK’s innovation arm.
This will help bring to market technologies that will enable the development of new treatments that disrupt the energy sources that cancer uses to spread and grow.
Dr Ian Fawkes, CRUK’s Executive Director of Research and Innovation and CEO of Cancer Research Horizons, said: “After years of painstaking laboratory research, we have identified a critical weakness in cancer. I did,” he said.
“Mutations in mitochondrial DNA are a common part of cancer, and the possibilities for this surprising discovery are endless.”
Dr. Ed Resnick of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center also worked on the study.
“This research opens up a whole world of possibilities to rewire a tumor’s energy sources and short-circuit them to beat cancer faster,” he added.
The results of this study were published in the journal Nature Cancer.