The development of a drug for the primary prevention of hereditary breast and ovarian cancer

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20K18906
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 58020:Hygiene and public health-related: including laboratory approach
• Research Institution: Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine
• Principal Investigator: Ono Hisako 京都府立医科大学, 医学(系)研究科(研究院), 特任助教 (50827326)
• Project Period (FY): 2020-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 遺伝性乳がん卵巣がん症候群 / 化学予防 / p21 / BRCA / p53

Outline of Final Research Achievements

As a preventive drug for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer syndrome, which is one of the best target for primary prevention, we focused on the decreased expression of p21 downstream of p53. We considered that there might be drugs or small molecules that increase p21 expression and could lead to cancer prevention.
A total of 962 drugs were screened, and those that inhibited more than 50% cancer cell growth by WST-8 assay were selected. Excluding drugs with clear issues regarding human use or fertility according to drug information, 23 drugs that increased p21 expression by more than twofold at mRNA level in PCR were identified. Among these, two drugs that did not induce BRCA1/2 expression were selected as candidate drugs for this study.

Free Research Field

分子標的癌予防

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究は化学予防という観点から遺伝性乳癌卵巣癌症候群症候群にアプローチした研究であった。特定のがんに罹患しやすい生まれながらの体質に対し、現時点での効果的な予防法は正常な乳房や卵巣などを切除するという侵襲的な方法しかない。身体的・心理的ダメージから、それに代わる安全な予防薬を見出すことが課題となっており、本研究で見出した候補薬よりさらなる安全な薬剤を見出す研究を継続することが必要である。