Treatment developed for two diseases following common factor discovery

The overproduction of a molecule that results in cells sticking together has been found to be a common part of two very different disease types. Both rheumatoid arthritis and a number of different cancers - including brain tumours and cancer -  feature the significant overproduction of the molecule, according to a new study. It was also found that candidate drugs that serve to inhibit the molecule - called cadherin-11 - could benefit both types of disease.

Researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) and collaborators from Harvard University, Mayo Clinic, Columbia University and Belfast's Queen's University performed the study. 

It was found that cadherin-11 is an important factor when it comes to the progression of certain cancer times, as well as rheumatoid arthritis, according Doctor Stephen Byers, professor and molecular oncologist at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center and senior investigator within the study. However, continues Doctor Byers, it is not yet understood why it leads to the diseases' progression.

The research found that more than 15 per cent of breast cancer cases included the overproduction of the molecule, as well as within many types of glioblastomas. Researchers believe that cadherin-11 is also a contributing factor when it comes to pancreatic cancer.

“What most of these cancers all have in common is cadherin-11 and a poor prognosis, with no effective therapies. Cadherin-11 expression is required for tumors to grow. If it is blocked, the cancers in cell line studies and in animals just stop growing - which is really quite striking," said Doctor Byers.

A drug has been developed that shuts down cadherin-11 in cancer and it was found that a similar small molecule agent treatment is currently on the market for the treatment of arthritis - called Celebrex. It was found that the Celebrex-related molecule works in a very similar way to the drug that was developed by the researchers, but has the potential to be less toxic when it comes to cancer treatments.     

An antibody has also been developed by researchers that shuts down the molecule in rheumatoid arthritis, which has been shown to work in animal models of tumours that created cadherin-11.