“Senotherapy,” a treatment that uses small molecule drugs to target “senescent” cells, or those cells that no longer undergo cell division, blunts liver tumor progression in animal models according to new research from a team led by Celeste Simon, a professor of cell and developmental biology in the Perelman School of Medicine, and scientific director of the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute. The study was published in Nature Cell Biology.
“This kind of therapy is not something that has been tried before with liver cancer,” Simon says. “And in our models, so-called ‘senolytic’ therapy greatly reduced disease burden, even in cases with advanced disease.”
Loss of the enzyme FBP1 in human liver cells significantly increases tumor growth. Previous research has shown FBP1 levels are decreased in stage 1 tumors, and further reduced as the disease progresses. In this study, Simon and her team used RNA-sequencing data to identify FBP1 as universally under-expressed in the most common form of liver cancer, hepatocelluar carcinoma, regardless of underlying causes like obesity, alcoholism, and hepatitis.
This story is by Melissa Moody. Read more at Penn Medicine News.
