BioCentury
ARTICLE | Distillery Therapeutics

Therapeutics: Stearoyl-CoA desaturase-1 (SCD1)

July 23, 2015 7:00 AM UTC

In vitro and mouse studies suggest inhibiting SCD1 could help treat cancer, diabetes and obesity. Dysregulated sirtuin 1 (SIRT1) expression has been implicated in metabolic disorders and cancers. In mice, knockout of the negative SIRT1 regulator deleted in breast cancer 1 (DBC1; CCAR2) increased SCD1 levels in the liver, increased insulin resistance and body fat content and decreased activation of p53 compared with normal DBC1 expression, whereas double-knockout of DBC1 and SCD1 reversed the effects of DBC1 deficiency on insulin resistance, body fat and p53. In p53-knockout mice that develop spontaneous tumors, an SCD1 inhibitor increased survival compared with no treatment. Next steps could include testing SCD1 inhibitors in additional models of cancer and metabolic disease...