Tubulin Targeting Agents Hold Promising Potential to Treat Ovarian Cancer

Steady research to explore novel strategies to treat ovarian cancer focuses on identifying effective molecular targets and the related target agents. Antimitotic agents are an unexplored area in cancer therapies. Mitosis of cancer cells is associated with a number of different cancer forms., hence cell mitosis has generated extensive interest among scientists. Researchers in recent years are intensively exploring microtubule-associated protein targets as an effective target for ovarian cancers that are genetically unstable.

A team of researchers at Tel Aviv University (Israel) gained insight by expanding their understanding of the underlying molecular biological mechanism of gene silencing of cytoskeleton-associated protein 5 (CKAP5). The researchers found that lipid nanoparticle-treated animals wherein CKAP5 was silenced demonstrated has 80% survival rate.

Chemoresistance in Ovarian Cancer Poses Significant Challenge

Current chemotherapeutic agents have been found to have serious side effects. More worryingly, at the later stage, 80%–85% of the patients develop chemo-resistance. In the light of lack of effective mitosis-targeting chemotherapeutic agents, the research findings are likely to have widespread implications for therapies in ovarian cancer. The study looked at 20 solid cancer cell lines in order to find a chemo-resistant cancer cell line.

Research in New Mitotic Targeting Agents to Pave the Way for Effective Therapies for Various Cancer Types

A favorable and pertinent outcome of the experiment was that gene silencing didn’t affect the normal cells as those were immune to CKAP5 genetic downregulation. Out of 20, the researchers found that 8 were resistant to CKAP5 silencing. In the study, they scrutinized survival rates in gene-knockout animal (mice) models. The researchers used apoptotic assay to examine mechanisms of cell apoptosis or cell death due to CKAP5 down-regulation. Ongoing research in new mitotic targeting agents is looking for new therapies for late-stage ovarian cancer metastasis. The researchers aim to explore the therapeutic potential of cytoskeleton-associated protein 5 for other types of cancer, especially colorectal, pancreatic, and liver