A new approach to stop cancer growth?

The protein is LSD1 (lysine-specific histone demethylase 1A), which functions as a type of traffic cop inside human cells. It controls gene activity during embryonic development and regulating gene expression throughout life.

Scientists have also identified in recent years that theoverexpressionof LSD1 -- in this instance, producing too many proteins -- can drive development of cancer and heart disease.

And some researchers have recently looked to slow cancer growth by stopping the catalytic activity of LSDI -- the chemical reaction that spurs cell growth, but also appears to lead to its overexpression.

But Kaixiang Cao, an assistant professor of biochemistry is leading a team that challenges that assumption: The medical school researchers argue that they can achieve far greater success to slow or stop cancer growth in stem cells by insteaddegradingthe entire LSD1 protein, not merely short-circuiting the chemical reaction that leads to its overexpression.

"Our findings really challenge the current paradigm," Cao said.

Their research waspublished in August in the journal Nature Communications.

"We need a really precise and effective way of targeting these proteins, and our research shows that stopping that catalysis might be effective (at stopping the overexpression) 15% of the time, while our approach is closer to 80%," Cao said. "So, if we can develop a degrader of LSD1, we can help the patient go through less therapy -- even if we cannot completely cure cancer."

Cao said he and his team were surprised LSD1 functions mainly in a catalytic-independent manner, but now that they've provided to the research community a "theoretical foundation that this is going to be a more effective way to treat these diseases," they'll begin to test further, first in cancerous tissues, then animal models and eventually human trials.

"This is the future -- you add the degrader, and it will kill the protein completely," he said. "The technique is already there because it has been done to other proteins by other researchers -- but not yet to LSD1."