BioCentury
ARTICLE | Targets & Mechanisms

Hide and seek

A two-part strategy for chasing dormant breast cancer cells out of hiding

June 23, 2016 7:00 AM UTC

Duke University researchers and their collaborators have identified the mechanism by which breast cancer cells hide in bone marrow to evade chemotherapy, and developed a two-part strategy for flushing them out. The mechanism falls neatly in the lap of GlycoMimetics Inc., providing a rationale for why the company's next clinical candidate, GMI-1359, might have an advantage in breast cancer.

The compound is a dual inhibitor of the cell adhesion molecule E selectin and CXCR4, the receptor for the chemokine CXCL12. In a paper published last month in Science Translational Medicine, the Duke group showed that breast cancer cells gain entry to the bone by binding E selectin in bone blood vessels, and then bind CXCL12 just outside the vessels to take root in the perisinusoidal regions of the bone marrow where they hide out (see Figure: Bad to the bone)...