HANGZHOU, May 8 (ChinaDaily) -- A medication widely used for the treatment of bone diseases is hopeful of becoming a targeted drug for basal-like breast cancer (BLBC), according to latest findings from the Zhejiang University School of Medicine.
The finings, made by a research group led by Professor Dong Chenfang, revealed that zoledronic acid (ZA), a marketed drug for treating osteoporosis, has the potential to become a valuable targeted drug for treating BLBC. The findings were published on the May 4 issue of US-based The Journal of Experimental Medicine.
BLBC, which generally falls into the triple-negative breast cancer subtype, is associated with a poor clinical outcome due to few treatment options and poor therapeutic response. There is an urgent need to elucidate the determinants of aggressiveness in BLBC and identify potential therapeutic targets for this disease.
Dong and his colleagues analyzed over 5,000 breast cancer patient samples and found that a metabolic enzyme UGT8 was dramatically elevated in BLBC. Breast cancer cells with high UGT8 expression produce large amounts of sulfatide, leading to activating signaling pathways critical for the survival and metastasis of BLBC. Depleting UGT8 from these cells lowered sulfatide production and decreased the lung metastasis in mice model.
The researchers also identified that zoledronic acid (ZA), a marketed drug for treating osteoporosis, is a direct inhibitor of UGT8, which efficiently inhibits the enzymatic activity of UGT8 and blocks the metastasis of the cancer cells.
Two recent retrospective studies from randomized trials showed that a trend favoring ZA treatment was observed in triple-negative breast cancer despite relatively small sample size. “Our study and these retrospective findings strongly support the translational value of ZA as a direct inhibitor of UGT8, and BLBC might be the most promising subtype to be effectively treated with additional ZA”, Dong told China Daily on Monday (May 7). However, further clinical trials are required to assess its druggability for the treatment of this challenging disease, Dong added.