A receptor protein called EPHB2 may play a key role in the development of malignant pleural mesothelioma, US scientists say. In their opinion, an opportunity for patients would be the development of drugs targeting this protein.
Malignant pleural mesothelioma is a rare, poor prognosis neoplasm associated with exposure to asbestos. It is a difficult diagnostic (due to non-specific symptoms, high variability of the radiological image and similarity to other neoplasms) and therapeutic problem. Despite trials with new types of therapies, treatment outcomes for pleural mesothelioma are still poor. The average survival time of patients is 12 months from diagnosis.
Advances in biological sciences allow a better understanding of the molecular basis of various signaling pathways involved in cancer development. This, in turn, often contributes to the discovery of new biomarkers that not only allow for early diagnosis of the disease, but also enable the creation of more effective therapeutic tools.
Using DNA microarrays (a technique for studying gene expression), scientists from New York University Langone Medical Center analyzed the amount of EPHB2 protein (ephrin B2) expression in samples from 34 people with malignant pleural mesothelioma. It turned out that the expression level of this gene in tumor tissues was much higher than in healthy tissues. This overexpression concerned all cell lines of this type of cancer, but it was not observed in the benign (benign) type of mesothelioma.
The researchers believe that the obtained results show the validity of developing new methods of fighting malignant pleural mesothelioma based on EPHB2. “Drugs targeting this protein can significantly improve the prognosis of patients with this cancer,” says the author of the study, Dr. Chandra Goparaju.
“We are going to conduct further in vitro studies in which we will test various EPHB2 inhibitors. This will give us a more complete picture of not only the function of ephrin B2 in the body, but also reveal its interactions with other receptor proteins and their ligands, which will help to understand why it has such a strong impact on the deterioration of the prognosis in patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma “- adds Goparaju .
The results of these studies were published in the September issue of the Journal of Thoracic Oncology.
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