The HIV drugs known as CCR5 antagonists (Maraviroc or Vicriviroc see below structures from left to right respectively) may also help prevent aggressive breast cancers from metastasizing, researchers from the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson suggest in a preclinical study.
Such drugs target the HIV receptor CCR5, which the virus uses to enter and infect host cells, and has historically only been associated with expression in inflammatory cells in the immune system. Researchers have now shown, however, that CCR5 is also expressed in breast cancer cells, and regulates the spread to other tissue.
What's more, blocking the receptor with the CCR5 antagonists Maraviroc and Vicriviroc, two drugs that slow down the spread of the HIV virus by targeting the CCR5 co-receptor of the chemokine CCL5, also prevents migration and spread of basal breast cancer cells, the researchers found.
"These results are dramatic," said Richard Pestell, M.D., Ph.D., FACP, Director of Jefferson's Kimmel Cancer Center and Chair of the Department of Cancer Biology at Thomas Jefferson University, and study senior author. "Our team showed that the CCR5/CCL5 axis plays a key role in invasiveness, and that a CCR5 antagonist can slow down the invasion of basal breast cancer cells."
"This suggests it may prove to be a viable adjuvant therapy to reduce the risk of metastasis in the basal breast cancer subtype," he added.
Basal tumors, which do not express the androgen or estrogen receptors or HER-2, are typically associated with metastasis and often do not respond to hormonal therapies. Current treatments include chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery, but all demonstrate poor outcomes, thus highlighting the urgent need for a specific targeted therapy for the subtype.
More : http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/early/2012/05/25/0008-5472.CAN-11-3917
