Breast cancer is the leading cause of death among women all over the world. Hormonal therapy, sometimes also called anti-estrogen therapy, works by lowering the amount of estrogen in the body or blocking estrogen from attaching to the breast cancer cells. Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) lacks the three most common types of receptors to fuel most breast cancer growth: ER, PR and HER-2. It constitutes about 10-20% of diagnosed breast cancers, can be more aggressive and difficult to treat and is more likely to spread and recur. There is great interest in finding targeted therapies against TNBC. The transcription factor FOXM1 has been pointed out as a potential target for several types of cancer (breast, prostate, ovary, lung ad GU tract); however, no effective therapies targeting FOXM1 have been developed so far.
Inventors at the University have developed small molecule anticancer compounds that can inhibit the FOXM1 transcription factors, a known anticancer target, and are effective against breast cancer including a triple negative variant. These compounds have been tested in mouse models showing good bioavailability after oral or subcutaneous administration. The compound NB-72 labeled with a fluorescent probe was additionally used to developed an in vitro assay for screening of inhibitors against FOXM1.
Publications
Ziegler, Y., Laws, M.J., Sanabria Guillen, V. et al. Suppression of FOXM1 activities and breast cancer growth in vitro and in vivo by a new class of compounds. npj Breast Cancer5, 45 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41523-019-0141-7