A team of researchers from five Swedish universities, led by Karolinska Institutet and the Science for Life Laboratory, have identified a new way of treating cancer. The concept is presented in the journal Nature and is based on inhibiting a specific enzyme called MTH1, which cancer cells, unlike normal cells, require for survival. Without this enzyme, oxidized nucleotides are incorporated into DNA, resulting in lethal DNA double-strand breaks in cancer cells.

“The concept is built on that cancer cells have an altered metabolism, resulting in oxidation of nucleotide building blocks”, says Thomas Helleday, holder of the Söderberg Professorship at Karolinska Institutet, who heads the study. “MTH1 sanitises the oxidized building blocks, preventing the oxidative stress to be incorporated into DNA and becoming DNA damage. This allows replication in cancer cells so they can divide and multiply. With an MTH1 inhibitor, the enzyme is blocked and damaged nucleotides enter DNA, causing damage and kill cancer cells. Normal cells do not need MTH1 as they have regulated metabolism preventing damage of nucleotide building blocks. Finding a general enzymatic activity required only for cancer cells to survive opens up a whole new way of treating cancer.”

Check the full article.

Source: Medical News Today.