A spare-part flaw in cancer cells: target the backup enzyme, spare the healthy tissue

Cancer's WNT pathway is a growth signal stuck in the 'on' position in almost all colorectal cancers and more than half of breast cancers — but blocking it has always harmed healthy cells too. A Weill Cornell Medicine team led by Dr Lukas Dow, with first author Dr Jill Zimmerman, found the workaround hiding in redundancy: many cancer cells have lost one of two backup enzymes that keep WNT running. In a study published 2 November in Nature Chemical Biology, the researchers showed that selectively blocking the remaining enzyme hobbles the cancer cells while leaving healthy cells — which still carry both copies — apparently untouched, and built a drug molecule that does exactly that in early laboratory experiments. It is preclinical work, years from patients, but it is a rare thing in oncology: a way to aim at the tumour's genetics rather than at everything at once.

SDG 3 · Good health and well-being — Mechanism: tech innovation