Discovery opens door for new cancer drugs

MicroRNAs are tiny molecules in our cells that help control which proteins get made. When they don’t work properly, it can lead to problems like cancer or heart disease.

Associate Professor Mark Chong is leading a project – supported by a $50,000 Tour de Cure grant – to develop a new class of drugs to inhibit certain microRNAs within the immune system as a novel immunotherapy to treat cancer.

Immunotherapies are treatments that activate the immune system to attack cancer cells and have been a breakthrough for several once incurable cancers, said A/Prof Chong, Head of SVI’s RNA and T Cell Biology lab.

“However, current immunotherapies are effective only on a small group of patients because many are often resistant to these drugs or become insensitive to them over time.

“New broad-acting immunotherapies that can benefit a wider number of cancer patients are needed,” said Mark.

Mark’s team has discovered that inhibiting a certain microRNA pathway in immune cells can activate the immune system against a wide range of cancers, including breast cancer and melanoma. It is this therapeutic response to a wide range of cancers that is most exciting if it can be translated to the clinic.

“Although microRNA inhibitors have previously been developed for clinical trials, they are ineffective at getting to the immune system.

“If we can get the inhibitors to immune cells, then our discovery could lead to a transformative impact on cancer,” said Mark.

To solve this problem, Mark’s team will exploit recent advancements in delivery technologies made by our partners at Monash University.