Description

Cutting edge anti-cancer approach targets CDK9

University of Nebraska Medical Center researchers created an inhibitor that targets cyclin-dependent kinase 9 (CDK9), a protein that regulates several oncogenes, which are often responsible for tumor growth.
 
This new CDK9 inhibitor is a PROTAC, or Proteolysis targeting chimera, which is a class of inhibitors that harness the body’s own protein degradation machinery to eliminate cancer-related proteins.
 
This new CDK9 PROTAC degrades CDK9 at nanomolar concentrations without degrading other CDKs or CDK9-binding partners in pancreatic cancer cells.
 
The CDK9 PROTAC can also sensitize pancreatic cancer cells to an FDA approved Bcl2 inhibitor Venetoclax, a cancer treatment patients commonly develop resistance to.
 
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