(ANSA) - ROME, MARCH 23 - Starving the tumor and slowing its growth: this is the goal that led the researchers of the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute to identify a drug that could be used in the future to block its absorption glutamine, a key food source for many forms of cancer, and also slow the growth of melanoma, a form of skin cancer.
It is a small molecule that targets the glutamine transporter Slc1A5, which has the task of "pumping" nutrients directly into cancer cells.
Researchers know that rapidly growing tumors are able to reprogram their metabolism to generate extra energy to survive and grow.
Tumors often accomplish this by pumping increasing levels of the amino acid glutamine into their cells, mainly through Slc1a5.
In the work, published in the scientific journal Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, 7,000 different compounds were examined for their ability to interfere with Slc1a5.
Among them, one was chosen: it is Imd-0354, the candidate to become a drug.
It was he who inhibited tumor growth in both cell culture and in mice with melanoma.
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