Researchers at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University say they have found a way to prevent breast cancer cells from metastasizing (spreading to a different part of the body) by targeting a protein needed for the process to take place.
Cancer cells develop “feet-like protrusions” known as invadopodia to push through into the bloodstream and reach other organs. According to the university, these invadopodia depend on interaction between two proteins called Pyk2 and cortactin in order to form.
By creating a peptide (a sequence of amino acids) that prevents Pyk2 and cortactin from interacting in breast cancer cells in mice, the researchers led by Dr. Hava Gil-Henn of Bar-Ilan’s Azrieli Faculty of Medicine and Prof. Jordan Chill from the Department of Chemistry saw that there were very few instances of metastasis.
Gil-Henn and Chill are now focused on transforming the peptide into a better drug candidate, the university said.
The researchers say that up to 90 percent of breast cancer deaths are the result of metastasis, which requires treatment not only for the primary tumor but for others that develop as a result of this process.