Cholesterol-lowering drugs may slow down metastases

Date:
February 28, 2022
Source:
Max Delbru"ck Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz
Association
Summary:
Many people have to take statins to lower their cholesterol
levels. But statins may be able to do even more: Researchers
report that these drugs inhibit a gene that promotes cancer cell
metastasis.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
Many people have to take statins to lower their cholesterol levels. But
statins may be able to do even more: Researchers report that these drugs inhibit a gene that promotes cancer cell metastasis.


========================================================================== Cancer patients rarely die from the primary tumor but rather from the metastases -- even after successful tumor surgery. This is because
cancer cells sometimes spread to other parts of body early in the
disease, when the tumor is still very small and may not have even been discovered yet. To do this they must break away from the extracellular
matrix and migrate into neighboring lymphatic vessels or blood vessels
that transport them to new tissue, where they settle and proliferate.

Understanding the molecular mechanisms of metastasis is therefore a key
piece of the puzzle in the fight against cancer. More than ten years
ago, Professor Ulrike Stein and her lab at the Experimental and Clinical Research Center (ECRC) were able to discover an important driver of this process in human colorectal cancer: the metastasis-associated in colon
cancer 1 (MACC1) gene.

The ECRC is a joint institution of the Max Delbru"ck Center for
Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC) and Charite' - - Universita"tsmedizin Berlin.

Drug screening identified statins When cancer cells express MACC1, their ability to proliferate, move around the body, and invade other tissues is enhanced. "Many types of cancers spread only in patients with high MACC1 expression," Stein explains. MACC1's role as a key factor and biomarker of tumor growth and metastasis -- not only in colorectal cancer, but in more
than 20 solid tumors such as gastric, liver and breast cancer -- has since
been studied by many other researchers worldwide and confirmed in more
than 300 publications. Now together with Dr. Robert Preissner of Charite', Stein has discovered what could disrupt metastatic progression in such
cases: Statins, which are prescribed as cholesterol-lowering drugs,
inhibit MACC1 expression in tumor cells. The scientists are presenting
their findings in the journal Clinical and Translational Medicine.

In their search for MACC1 inhibitors, the researchers conducted
high-throughput drug screening with colleagues at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany. They independently hit
upon statins. They tested this discovery on various tumor cell lines,
with favorable results: All seven drugs tested reduced MACC1 expression
in the cells but to varying degrees. The scientists then administered
the cholesterol inhibitors to genetically modified mice with increased
MACC1 expression. This almost completely suppressed the formation of
tumors and metastases in the animals. "What is particularly remarkable
is that the benefits continued in the animals even after we reduced the
dose relative to the amount that humans normally ingest," Stein says.

Statins have one big advantage: they are already approved Robert Preissner
and scientists at the University of Virginia also examined data from a
total of 300,000 patients who had been prescribed statins. This analysis
found a correlation: "Patients taking statins had only half the incidence
of cancer compared to the general population," Preissner explains.

Stein advises against taking statins as a preventive measure without
consulting a doctor and having their lipid levels checked, so as to ensure
no serious side effects occur. "We are still at the very beginning,"
the scientist stresses.

"Cell lines and mice are not human beings, so we cannot directly transfer
the results." The experimental studies and retrospective data analysis
will now be followed up by a clinical trial, she says. Only after that
will it be possible to say with certainty whether statins actually
prevent or reduce metastasis in patients with high MACC1 expression.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Max_Delbru"ck_Center_for_Molecular_Medicine_in_the
Helmholtz_Association. Original written by Jana Ehrhardt-Joswig. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Bjoern‐O Gohlke, Fabian Zincke, Andreas Eckert, Dennis Kobelt,
Saskia Preissner, Juliane Maria Liebeskind, Nikolas Gunkel,
Kerstin Putzker, Joe Lewis, Sally Preissner, Benedikt Kortu"m,
Wolfgang Walther, Cameron Mura, Philip E. Bourne, Ulrike Stein,
Robert Preissner.

Real‐world evidence for preventive effects of statins on
cancer incidence: A trans‐Atlantic analysis. Clinical and
Translational Medicine, 2022; 12 (2) DOI: 10.1002/ctm2.726 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/02/220228114359.htm

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