New research from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) marks a potential advance against RAS-driven cancers; breaks down data silos to better predict cancer outcomes with the help of artificial intelligence (AI); identifies two enzymes vital for maintaining brain health; uncovers how changes to "helper" proteins drive cancer cell survival; develops a new model for investigating lung cancer metastasis; and uses AI to improve outcome predictions in sarcoma.
MSK researchers make significant step toward development of new anti-RAS therapies
Each year, more than 3 million people are diagnosed with cancers driven by mutations in three RAS-family genes: KRAS, NRAS, and HRAS. These mutations impair the GTPase activity of RAS (an enzymatic process critical for cellular signaling and functions), leading to runaway cell proliferation. For decades, scientists' efforts to target this process to restore the normal function of mutant RAS proteins have been unsuccessful.
Now an MSK research team has identified a therapeutic approach that has shown promise in preclinical models. In a new study, scientists from the lab of Piro Lito, MD, PhD — co-led by Antonio Cuevas-Navarro, PhD , and Yasin Pourfarjam, PhD — demonstrated that certain inhibitors can not only prevent RAS from binding to its downstream targets or signaling partners, but, unexpectedly, can also improve the impaired GTP hydrolysis caused by the mutations.
