A new approach to drugging a difficult cancer target
One of the most common cancer-promoting genes, known as Myc, is also one of the most difficult to target with drugs. Scientists have long tried to develop drugs that block the Myc protein, but so far their efforts have not been successful. Now, using an alternative strategy, MIT researchers have discovered a compound that can reduce Myc activity by tying up the protein that is Myc’s usual binding partner, leaving Myc partnerless and unable to perform its usual functions. The research team, led by Angela Koehler, an assistant professor of biological engineering and a member of MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, found that the compound they developed could suppress tumor growth in mice with certain types of cancer. The compound has been licensed by an MIT spinout that is now seeking to develop more powerful versions that could potentially be tested in human patients. Koehler is the senior author of the...