Tumours can be prevented from growing with new oral drug

An effective drug have been found by the researchers of US which can prevent tumour from growing.

University of colorado Cancer Center’s team have found that slowing down NLRP3 can help in reducing inflammation and curb tumour growth and proggrssion.
Carlo Marchetti, from the varsity’s School of medicine, said “NLRP3 is a member of a larger family that is involved in sensing danger signals”.
” It is a receptor that surveils that intercellular compartment of a cell, looking for danger molecules or pathogens.
Marchetti said “When NLRP3 recognises these signals, it leads to the activation of caspase-1, a protein involved in the processing and maturation of interleukin-1-beta into it’s biological active form, causing an intense inflammatory response. We found that in melanoma, this process is dyseregulated, resulting in tumour growth”.
The study is published in the journal PNAS.
The oral NLRP3 inhibitor used in the study has already shown to be effective in clinical trials to treat gout and heart diseases, and it is currently being tested in covid-19 as well.
The researchers are now trying to find out if this NLRP3 inhibitor can be successfully used in melanoma patients who are resistant to checkpoint inhibitors.
“Checkpoint inhibitors increase the efficiency of the immune system to kill tumours, but sometimes tumours become resistant to this treatment,” Marchetti said.
He noted “A big part of cancer research now is to find therapies that can be combined with checkpoint inhibitors to improve their efficiency”.