February 22, 2024
Keio University School of Medicine
Central Institute for Experimental Animals
A research group led by Senior Assistant Professor Takehiro Yamamoto of the Department of Biochemistry and Senior Assistant Professor Satoshi Hayashida of the Department of Surgery (General and Gastroenterological) at the Keio University School of Medicine, in a joint research project with Makoto Suematsu, Director of the Central Institute for Experimental Animals (Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture) and Professor Emeritus at Keio University, has discovered a new mechanism by which breast cancer cells acquire resistance to chemotherapy.
Breast cancer is classified into subtypes with different characteristics based on gene expression, and treatment strategies differ for each. Among these, triple-negative breast cancer, which accounts for just over 10% of all breast cancers, is known for its high malignancy, poor prognosis, and its tendency to acquire resistance during chemotherapy.
In this study, the joint research group conducted experiments using triple-negative breast cancer cells. They found that in cells resistant to paclitaxel, a standard chemotherapy drug, the serine biosynthesis pathway—which branches off from glycolysis (the pathway that produces energy from glucose)—is activated. This results in the active synthesis of fatty acids necessary for cancer cell proliferation. Furthermore, through cell and animal experiments, they successfully reversed the drug resistance of breast cancer cells by blocking this pathway. Further development of these findings is expected to offer benefits such as improving the determination of breast cancer malignancy through histopathology and expanding treatment options beyond current standards by controlling the metabolism of cancer cells.
The results of this research were published in the online edition of Cancer Research , a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, on February 22, 2024, at 12:00 a.m. (US Eastern Time).
Please see below for the full press release.