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Dear Readers, Welcome to the latest issue of Micro
With five-year survival rates for metastatic breast cancer still below 30%, breakthroughs in both understanding and treatment are needed urgently. During Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we pay tribute to the dedicated scientists working at critical stages of the drug discovery and manufacturing pipeline.
Breast cancer remains the most common malignancy in women worldwide, and a leading cause of cancer-related mortality. Over the past decade, advances in sequencing and molecular biology techniques have revealed significant disease heterogeneity, identifying distinct subtypes and molecular drivers.
These discoveries have led to the design of several effective new therapies, although drug resistance continues to pose a major challenge.
One hundred years have passed since Otto Warburg first discovered alterations in cancer metabolism, laying the foundation for what has become a thriving field of research. His observation, now known as the Warburg Effect, highlighted that cancer cells preferentially use glycolysis to produce energy, even when oxygen is abundant – unlike most normal cells, which use this pathway primarily in low oxygen conditions.
In honour of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we highlight new research from Swiss scientists, showing how breast cancer cells rely on specific metabolic pathways for growth and metastasis, paving the way for an “effective multimodal treatment strategy”.
This discovery was revolutionary, suggesting that cancer could be targeted by disrupting its altered metabolic pathways.
Despite this early insight, therapeutic progress in targeting cancer metabolism has been slow, with only a few metabolism-based drugs progressing to advanced preclinical and clinical stages. Yet cancer metabolism remains a promising frontier, offering novel ways to halt tumour growth and metastasis.
A groundbreaking study, published in Nature Communications by the Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research, citing TRC metabolic pathway blockers and ATCC cell lines, such as 4T1 highlights how a subset of cancer cells, known as metastasis-initiating cells (MICs), undergo metabolic adaptations. These include changes within the TCA cycle and fatty acid metabolism, alongside morphological changes such as epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), all of which fuel cancer cell spread.
Excitingly, the study demonstrated that inhibiting production of the key metabolite acetyl-CoA, or targeting epigenetic modifications like Histone H3 acetylation (H3K27AC) significantly reduced MIC frequency and metastatic potential. Lead author Megan Young explains, “Our work demonstrates that precise regulation of histone acetylation is crucial for metastasis… [and] perturbing histone acetylation can be an effective and multimodal treatment strategy.”
However, she also notes that “It may… be essential to target multiple acetyl-CoA generating pathways and additionally target downstream epigenetic modifiers coupled with closely monitoring response to treatment for full and long-lasting efficacy.” These findings offer promising therapeutic strategies aimed at disrupting the metabolic foundations of cancer metastasis.
LGC Standards’ TRC brand has more than 40 years’ experience working through some of the most complex synthetic pathways to deliver you high quality research chemicals. Our world-leading chemists engineer specific solutions for customers, and we have a uniquely large range – featuring APIs, impurities, metabolites, building blocks, SILS and many novel bioactive molecules for research into areas including cancer, infectious diseases, and neuroscience. Need a custom molecule? Our synthetic chemists are up to the challenge! Enquire today.
Our Mikromol range of pharmaceutical reference materials meanwhile includes a wide selection of APIs, impurities and excipients, manufactured to the highest quality (ISO 17034 / 17025 accredited), and commonly used in method validation and drug product testing.
Distributed by LGC in Europe and Africa, the ATCC Biobank is the global leader in in vitro models – providing the world’s largest collection of cell lines, numerous advanced models, and microbiology tools.
