Elaboration and application of novel synergistic molecular approaches for breast cancer therapy

Academic head of project management: Szöllősi János

  • Title of project: Új szinergikus molekuláris eljárások kidolgozása és alkalmazása emlőrákok kezelésére
  • Type of grant: OTKA-NK
  • Description: We propose to investigate the reasons of breast cancer treatment failures and to outline the principles of synergistic combinations of current and new therapeutic modalities which can cure or stabilize the disease. We will investigate 3 areas of therapy resistance.
    • (1) We plan to study if resistance to anti-ErbB2 antibody therapy is related to the expressions of and interactions between K+ channels and integrins potentially leading to ErbB2 masking based on our previous studies.
    • (2) We will investigate how breast cancer cells can be killed by exploiting the ion homeostasis imbalance related to the overexpression of P-glycoprotein (Pgp) by combining conventional and receptor-targeted chemotherapeutics with Pgp and K+ channel inhibitors.
    • (3) We plan to define live cell markers for breast cancer stem cells (CSC) by a systematic analysis of cell surface and nuclear epigenetic markers and analyze what roles ErbB proteins and K+ channels play in generating CSCs. In a separate arm of the proposal we will characterize the immunological synapses formed by T-cells expressing chimeric antigen receptors (CAR) targeted against ErbB2 and if CAR-mediated immune responses can be utilized to overcome resistance to anti-ErbB2 antibody therapy caused by antigen masking.
  • We believe that synergistic combinations of treatment modalities targeting stem cells, multidrug resistance, antigen masking and key growth factor receptors have the potential to overcome therapy resistance in breast cancer.
  • The duration of the project: January 1, 2012 – December 31, 2015
  • Actual total costs: 95.000.000 (HUF)
  • Type of research: Basic
Last update: 2021. 08. 16. 10:58