ARTICLE | Targets & Mechanisms
Taking down autophagy
October 27, 2011 7:00 AM UTC
Researchers at Harvard Medical School and the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry have identified a small molecule called spautin-1 that blocked the prosurvival autophagy pathway in cancer cells.1 Based on the findings, Harvard University, Roche and China's BioBay have partnered to develop spautin-1 derivatives and test them in preclinical models of breast and ovarian cancer.
Autophagy occurs during cellular starvation or stress and is a process by which a cell generates building blocks by degrading its own proteins and organelles in the lysosome. In the nutrient-deficient environment of the tumor, autophagy can serve as an alternative energy source that helps the malignant cells survive...