"Pincer Attack" on Transcription Factors: New Possibilities for Future Blood Cancer Therapies

KREMS, Austria - Oct. 17, 2024 - PRLog -- The simultaneous inhibition of the transcription factors Myc and JunB could represent a pioneering therapeutic option for the treatment of multiple myeloma (MM), the second most common type of blood cancer. This is the outstanding result of a recent study conducted by a team of the Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences (KL Krems) together with Austrian and American colleagues. The study was the first to show that the two regulatory proteins have independent effects in MM cells. The simultaneous inhibition of both proteins thus resulted in a synergistic anti-tumor effect.

Multiple myeloma (MM) is the second most common hematopoietic malignancy, still considered incurable despite unprecedented therapeutic advances over the last two decades. Novel therapies are therefore needed. Since several years the team of Prof. Mag. DDr. Klaus Podar, Head of the Division of Molecular Oncology and Hematology, Division of Internal Medicine 2 at University Hospital Krems (one of the education- and research sites of KL Krems) focuses its research on the role of tumor-associated transcription factors (TFs), proteins that bind to specific DNA sequences and act as regulators, and the derived development of TF inhibitors. However, TF inhibitors were thought to be "undruggable" until most recently. The team's previous studies have demonstrated a pathophysiologic role of the TF JunB in MM, tumor cell proliferation and drug resistance in particular. Moreover, they established that JunB also increases the proliferation of tumor-promoting blood vessels in the bone marrow.

Original publication: Dual therapeutic targeting of MYC and JUNB transcriptional programs for enhanced anti-myeloma activity. J. Lind, O. Aksoy, M. Prchal-Murphy, F. Fan, M. Fulciniti, D. Stoiber, L. Bakiri, E. F. Wagner, E. Zwickl-Traxler, M. Sattler, K. Kollmann, S. Vallet and K. Podar. Blood Cancer Journal (2024)14:138. https://kris.kl.ac.at/de/publications/dual-therapeutic-targeting-of-myc-and-junb-transcriptional-progra

Scientific Contact

Prof. Mag. DDr. Klaus Podar

Division of Internal Medicine 2

University Hospital Krems

Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences

Mitterweg 10

3500 Krems / Austria

T +43 2732 9004 12355

E klaus.podar@krems.lknoe.at

W https://www.krems.lknoe.at

Copy Editing & Distribution

PR&D – Public Relations for Research & Education

Dr. Barbara Bauder-Jelitto

Kollersteig 68

3400 Klosterneuburg / Austria

M +43 664 1576 350

E  bauder@prd.at

L https://www.linkedin.com/company/prd-public-relations-für-forschung-bildung (https://www.linkedin.com/company/prd-public-relations-f%C3%BCr-forschung-bildung)

W (https://www.krems.lknoe.at/) https://www.prd.at/