An international research team has shown that the use of an anti-miRna-155 drug significantly slows tumour growth both in vitro and in vivo in the most aggressive lymphomas. The collaborative study between the group of the Department of Experimental Medicine of Sapienza (Eleni Anastasiadou, first author, Cinzia Marchese and Pankaj Trivedi) and Harvard Medical School and has just been published in the journal Clinical Cancer Research.

The scientists have used a novel tool to turn off a specific gene, such as an oncogene or an oncomiRNA, the engine responsible for the proliferation of cancer cells. MicroRNA (miRNA) are small RNA molecules which, although do not encode for any protein, play a key role in the regulation of fundamental biological processes such as development, differentiation, proliferation and cell death. There is a group of these molecules, called oncogenic miRNAs, which can switch off genes that protect us from cancer. Highly expressed in cancer cells, these oncogenic miRnas are an important target of new cancer therapies.

The anti-tumour effect of the new molecule was studied in collaboration with the US pharmaceutical company miRagen Therapeutics, and its efficacy and safety profile will be further investigated in a phase two clinical trial. The authors of the study are quite hopeful as to the therapeutic potential of the anti-miRNA molecules. "It has been observed that the reduction in miR-155 expression makes the tumour cell also responds better to traditional chemotherapies", says Eleni Anastasiadou. “Therefore, our study is an important point of departure in identification of new therapeutic approaches based on anti-miRNA molecules for the treatment of aggressive lymphomas and leukaemia which are resistant to conventional therapies."

References:

Cobomarsen, an oligonucleotide inhibitor of miR-155, slows DLBCL tumor cell growth in vitro and in vivo – Eleni Anastasiadou, Anita Seto, Xuan Beatty, Melanie Hermreck, Maud-Emmanuelle Gilles, Dina Stroopinsky, Lauren C. Pinter-Brown, Linda Pestano, Cinzia Marchese, David Avigan, Pankaj Trivedi, Diana Escolar, Aimee Jackson and Frank J. Slack – Clinical Cancer Reasearch, 2020. DOI 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-20-3139

Further Information

Eleni Anastasiadou
Department of Experimental Medicine
eleni.anastasiadou@uniroma1.it