Pr. Sharon PRINCE
Good morning to all,
Pr. Sharon PRINCE from the University of Cape Town, South Africa, will present her work.
Come and join us!
Combining targeted and repurposing approaches to treat cervical cancer
Abstract :
Cervical cancer (CC) is a leading cause of death in women globally with over 80% occurring in low- and middle-income countries and therefore cheap therapeutics are needed to treat CC. The Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) is the prime etiological agent of CC and its E6 and E7 oncoproteins cooperate with host factors to induce and maintain the malignant phenotype. An approach that may facilitate rapid and cost-effective drug development is to identify these host factors and to target them with commercially available non-cancer drugs. In this regard, we are interested in the transcription factor TBX3 which is overexpressed in several cancers where it promotes oncogenesis, and it has been validated as a druggable target. Importantly, using a high
throughput cell-based immunofluorescence screen we have identified commercially available drugs that negatively regulate TBX3 protein levels and/or nuclear localisation. Among the drugs identified were niclosamide (NS), piroctone olamine (PO) and/or pyrvinium pamoate (PP). My presentation will describe the expression, regulation, and oncogenic roles of TBX3 in HPV- positive and HPV- negative cervical cancer and will provide evidence that NS, PO, and PP are promising drugs that can be repurposed to treat HPV positive cervical cancer.
