INDIA New England News
New York– US researchers have found that an oral drug can be effective in stopping tumours from growing.
The team from the University of Colorado Cancer Center found that slowing down NLRP3 can reduce inflammation and curb tumour growth and progression.
“NLRP3 is a member of a larger family that is involved in sensing danger signals,” said Carlo Marchetti, from the varsity’s School of Medicine.
“It is a receptor that surveils the intercellular compartment of a cell, looking for danger molecules or pathogens.
“When NLRP3 recognises these signals, it leads to the activation of caspase-1, a protein involved in the processing and maturation of interleukin-1-beta into its biological active form, causing an intense inflammatory response. We found that in melanoma, this process is dysregulated, resulting in tumour growth,” Marchetti said.
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Cancer doctors may soon have a new tool for treating melanoma and other types of cancer, thanks to work being done by researchers at the University of Colorado Cancer Center.
In a paper published in the journal
PNAS last month, CU Cancer Center members Mayumi Fujita, MD, PhD, Angelo D Alessandro, PhD, Morkos Henen, PhD, MS, Beat Vogeli, PhD, Eric Pietras, PhD, James DeGregori, PhD, Carlo Marchetti, PhD, and Charles Dinarello, MD, along with Isak Tengesdal, MS, a graduate student in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, detail their work on NLRP3, an intracellular complex that has been found to participate in melanoma-mediated inflammation, leading to tumor growth and progression. By inhibiting NLRP3, the researchers found, they can reduce inflammation and the resultant tumor expansion.