FOUR IMPORTANT PROJECTS
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genes are present, however, they give protection from the toxic effect of the substances. The project has found a further ‘loss gene’ and is looking for additional drug candidates capable of killing tumour cells that lack these specific genes. The clever part is that the surrounding normal cells, which have not lost any genes, are not vulnerable to the drug. In the best of worlds, then, brutal treatment could be targeted at the cancer cells while healthy cells are spared entirely.
Cancer is one of the most common causes of illness in our society. Around a third of us will suffer from cancer at some point during our lifetime. Every day millions of aging or damaged cells are cleared out of our body, and newly formed cells take their place to perform the body’s functions. The body has an amazing capacity to compensate for lost cells and recognises when cells have been replenished again. The balance between the accelerator and the brake in cell growth is regulated by complex interaction between our genes. If the activity of the growth-regulating genes is disturbed, with a braking gene losing its braking power or a growth-stimulating gene becoming overactive, the risk of a cancer forming is increased. Healthcare is getting better at diagnosing and treating cancers as we learn more about the mechanisms behind how they occur. Great progress has been made in treating cancer, but despite this the therapies are not effective in certain patients. In recent years, therefore, researchers have increasingly focused on trying to find treatments that are tailored to the individual patient. In 2020 the Erling-Persson Foundation granted funding to various projects that all aim in different ways to achieve more personalised treatments for cancer. The hope is that new treatments will be more precise, have fewer side effects and be more effective.
PROTEIN MAPS SHOW THE WAY TO TREATMENT Janne Lehtiö, Uppsala University SEK 7.5 M / 3 YEARS At Karolinska Institutet, Janne L ehtiö’s research group is working on another strategy for finding personalised treatments for cancer. The tendency of cancer cells to make mistakes when copying the genetic material to the daughter cells leads not just to the loss of genes, but also to the occurrence of new gene combinations. If the new gene combinations can be read by the machinery in the cell which produces proteins – using the genes as a template – then new proteins may arise. These new proteins, known as neoantigens, are thus not present in the healthy cells. Attempts are therefore being made to find active ingredients for drugs that are able to attack the cancer cells via these neoantigens. To find neoantigens, Lehtiö’s research group has characterised the entire set of proteins expressed by two types of leukaemia: acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) and chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL). The aim is to use the information about the proteinstructures, in combination with genetic markers and blood markers, to identify subgroups of these types of leukaemia and be able to tailor treatment to the specific characteristics of the subgroup. This work enables patient groups with different prognoses and differences in sensitivity to drugs to be identified.
LOST GENES COULD BE ACHILLES HEEL Tobias Sjöblom, Uppsala University SEK 9 M / 3 YEARS Tobias Sjöblom at Uppsala University is working on such a new method. It is hoped that the method will target cancer cells using drugs that focus on the genetic changes that can arise when cancer cells multiply. The background to this is that cancer cells – which, among other things, are characterised by more or less uninhibited growth – also become worse at transferring p erfect copies of the genetic material to the daughter cells. Often various genes, or parts of genes, are lost along the way. The research group has shown that there are substances which effectively kill tumour cells that have lost a specific gene during the development of colorectal cancer. So long as healthy
THE RIGHT DRUG, AT THE RIGHT TIME, IN THE RIGHT DOSE, TO THE RIGHT PERSON Christel Bergström, Uppsala University SEK 9 M / 3 YEARS Knowing which drug is effective against a certain type of cancer, or in the fight against another disease, is of course essential if patients are to be given treatment that works. For the drug to be of most benefit and at the same time have as
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