Malaria drug may be cancer treatment

A new study by University of Kentucky Markey Cancer
Center researchers shows that chloroquine – a drug
currently used to treat malaria – may be useful in
treating patients with metastatic cancers.

A drug used to treat malaria may be useful in halting the spread of cancer cells, researchers say.

In a study published in the January 2017 Cell Reports, researchers at the University of Kentucky Markey Cancer center showed in both mouse models and in cancer patients in a clinical trial that the drug chloroquine triggers the production of a protein, called Par-4, a protein that plays a key role in tumor cell death and metastasis.

The scientists led by Vivek Rangnekar, an oncology research at the UK Markey Cancer Center showed that chloroquine causes Par-4 secretion via the gene P-53’s pathway. P-53 is known to regulate cell division and is mutated in many cancers. 

“Because p53 is often mutated in tumors, it makes the tumors resistant to treatment,” said Rangnekar, also the co-leader of the Cancer Cell Biology and Signaling research program and associate director at Markey. “However, this study shows that the relatively safe, FDA-approved drug chloroquine empowered normal cells – which express wild type p53 – to secrete Par-4 and stop metastasis in p53-deficient tumors.”

At the UK Markey Cancer Center, one clinical trial using chloroquine for Par-4 induction in a variety of cancer patients is ongoing. Researchers are now planning a second clinical trial that would involve giving a maintenance dose of chloroquine to patients who are in remission, with the hopes of preventing cancer relapse.

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