Putting the brakes on metastasis
Dr. Jonathan Blay wants to put a stop to the deadliest part of the cancer process: metastasis. Dr. Blay examines new and existing compounds in his search for ways to stop cancers from spreading.
“It’s rarely the primary tumour that kills,” says Dr. Blay, a professor in the Department of Pharmacology at Dalhousie and scientific director of the Beatrice Hunter Cancer Research Institute. “Cancer becomes deadly when cancer cells migrate from the original tumour and set up colonies throughout the body.”
The Master Keys
Dr. Blay has found several key molecules and processes that drive metastasis. “We’ve discovered that cancer cells produce high levels of a homing protein called CXCR4, which the immune system normally uses to direct white blood cells around the body,” he explains. “Cancer cells subvert this process and use CXCR4 like a tow-rope to get out of the main tumour and to go to areas of the body that are signalling for immune support.”
Dr. Blay and his research team:
- have identified several drug strategies that knock down CXCR4 levels in cancer cells
- are currently testing the ability of these drugs to suppress metastasis in the lab, as a prelude to human clinical trials
- is advancing research findings by partnering with biotech and pharmaceutical firms
The RNA-interference (RNAi) library will play a vital role in Dr. Blay’s research. “This technology provides us with a set of master keys that allows us to turn off proteins in cancer cells one by one,” he explains. “This will reveal if and how the protein is involved in cancer and rapidly accelerate our discovery of new drug targets.”
This year the Molly Appeal will raise funds to purchase Atlantic Canada’s first RNA-interference (RNAi) Library. This facility will give researchers 70,000 genetic tools they can use to determine the function of every gene in a cell.