miR-10b inhibition: A strategy for treating metastatic breast cancer

A new research paper was published in Oncotarget, titled "Inhibition of miR-10b treats metastatic breast cancer by targeting stem cell-like properties."

As stated within the paper, despite advances in breast cancer screening and treatment, the prognosis for metastatic disease remains dismal, with only a 30% five-year survival rate. This poor outcome is largely due to the failure of current therapeutics to target the unique properties of metastatic cells. One of the key drivers of metastasis is miR-10b, a small noncoding RNA implicated in cancer cell invasion, migration, viability, and proliferation.

Researchers Alan Halim, Nasreen Al-Qadi, Elizabeth Kenyon, Kayla N. Conner, Sujan Kumar Mondal, Zdravka Medarova, and Anna Moore from Michigan State University's Precision Health Program, College of Human Medicine, and College of Veterinary Medicine, and Transcode Therapeutics Inc. in Newton, Massachusetts, provide transcriptional evidence that inhibiting miR-10b with MN-anti-miR10b—a nanodrug designed to deliver anti-miR-10b antisense oligomers to cancer cells—activates developmental processes in cancer cells. They observed increased miR-10b expression in stem-like cancer cells.

In mouse models of metastatic triple-negative breast cancer, MN-anti-miR10b has been shown to prevent the onset of metastasis and eliminate existing metastases when combined with chemotherapy, even after treatment has been discontinued.

"Our results demonstrate that inhibition of miR-10b using MN-anti-miR10b decreases the stemness of breast cancer cells, supporting dedifferentiation as a mechanism through which the nanodrug may function as a therapy," explained the researchers.