Selinexor Provides Hope
Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute recently published a study investigating the molecular mechanism of action of Selinexor in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and the tumor’s surrounding microenvironment. Sky’s funded researcher, Asfar Azmi, Ph.D., Molecular Therapeutics (MT) Research Program Leader and Pancreas Cancer Research Director at Karmanos, guided this study. It is titled “Molecular analysis of XPO1 inhibitor and gemcitabine-nab-paclitaxel combination in KPC pancreatic cancer mouse model,” published in Clinical and Translational Medicine in December 2023. Md. Hafiz Uddin, Ph.D., MT Research Program, was the first author.
Pancreatic cancer can be deadly because the tumor and the microenvironment work collectively to maintain growth and promote drug resistance, meaning most patients experience disease progression. Researchers at Karmanos have been studying the drug Selinexor for quite some time. Earlier studies from Dr. Azmi’s group showed that pancreatic cancer cells have excessive protein export signaling, causing the tumor suppressor proteins to mislocate leading to uncontrolled cell growth. Selinexor blocks nuclear protein transport to retain good proteins in the correct compartment of cancer cells, thus killing tumor cells.
We anticipate that these findings will help the enhanced use of Selinexor in tumors beyond pancreatic cancer, especially in cancers with dense stroma,” concluded Dr. Azmi.
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