Minilib, a new anticancer molecule

CNRS researcher, Laurence Lafanechère, working at Albert-Bonniot Institute in La Tronche has received, along with her team, the Clara canceropole trophee for their new decovery of a new anticancer molecule which targets metastasis.

This molecule is called “Liminib”, and it has a special ability of selectively inhibiting the LIM Kinase enzyme, which is involved in the motility (1) of metastatic cells.

Laurence Lafanechère and her team from the Albert-Bonniot Institute/CNRS discovered this new molecule while developing a cellular test to select, via high rate screening (2), agents on cytoskeleton regulators. Once identified, this molecule proved to be toxic for some cancers, even those which had developed some resistance against treatments used during conventional chemotherapies.

Laurence Lafanechère explains: "Most therapies against cancer focus on primary tumors whereas metastatis is still nowadays causing 90% of casualties. New drugs, acting on resisting cancers and preventing metastatis development, would represent a major therapeutic breakthrough."

"Holding cells still to prevent their division"

How would such drugs act? "Microtubules are intertwined threads that a cell brings together or apart to create highways, so it can transport everything it needs from one place to another or build a mitotic device, enabling proper division of the cell and proper distribution of its chromosomes during its division."

"When microtubules are stabilized, the cell is "frozen" and cell division prevented. These drugs, which stabilize microtubules while preventing cell division, have anticancer property. For instance, Taxol® or Navelbine®. The only problem is: cells then get extremely resistant..."

"The screening platform, which I put in place at CEA, before joining the Albert-Bonniot Institute, and that I have carried on for ten years, has enabled me to perform tests on a wide range of molecules over a wide panel of biological targets, involved in this pathology. This greatly increases the chances we have to find an active molecule which could be a drug candidate."

"First, we decided to focus on research for molecules stabilizing microtubules. Then, we used this molecule as a "hook" in order to find our target."

(1) Physiological ability to move.
(2) set of techniques to study and identify molecules with new properties.

translated from http://www.ledauphine.com/isere-sud/2012/03/26/liminib-nouvelle-molecule-anticancereuse, picture from the same article

PersoNote: Laurence is a very passionate researcher and, foremost, someone who wants to find meaningful things!