The senior scientist at the Institute has discovered that the key to treating patients with ovarian cancer lies in understanding the role of gelsolin. We have teamed up with colleagues from National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan and found that this increase in protein levels is associated with invasive forms of ovarian cancer. This form of ovarian cancer is more likely to develop chemotherapy resistance and lead to death.
The researchers showed how gelsolin works at the molecular level to protect cancer cells against a widely used chemotherapy drug, cisplatin.
This finding is important because they will help doctors to determine the most effective treatment based on the level of gelsolin. However, further work is still needed to determine how much gelsolin there is in order to show that a cancer is resistant to chemotherapy and thus requires different treatment options.
In addition, this same protein - which makes ovarian cancer cells chemoresistant - can be used to overcome this therapeutic barrier. By cutting gelsolin into specific fragments and putting them into chemotherapy-resistant cancer cells, the international team found that they could make these cells susceptible to cisplatin's anti-cancer effects.
The discovery points to a promising approach to develop a new therapy to reduce the chemoresistance of this fatal disease. He is currently leading the International Macromolecular Analysis and Innovation Institute of Nanomedicine (IMANI), which focuses on the application of molecular research results to the clinic.