Periodic Reporting for period 4 - PLEIO-RANK (Pleiotropic treatment of cancer: RANK inhibitors targeting cancer stem cells and immunity)
Période du rapport: 2021-02-01 au 2022-07-31
Our objective is to understand the different functions of RANK protein RANK in various organs and situations. We hypothesized that RANK could act differently on homeostasis or in tumor formation and development, depending on its tissue and cellular context.
For our study, we focused on tissues where RANK and RANKL are known to be expressed, at different levels and on different cell types: mammary gland, skin, immune system, intestine and colon. We aim to identify whether RANK is crucial to maintain tissue organization and homeostasis, whether it plays a role in tumor initiation or development and we will analyze the effects of RANK inhibition both during homeostasis and tumorigenesis, with a special focus in the interchange of signals with the immune system.
Given the pleiotropic effects of RANK signaling pathway in multiple cell types and at different stages of tumor progression, we expect to identify novel indications for an existing drug that is only used in bone metastasis, for prevention and treatment of epithelial carcinomas, which could result may result in real, immediate, benefit for patients.
We do expect that, in the medium-long term, our results might prove useful for the development of new therapeutic strategies for solid tumors: novel inhibitors of RANK signaling, or downstream targets. We propose to apply our current knowledge on RANK to explore its real value as therapeutic target given the availability of a drug that, if correctly addressed may result in real, immediate, benefit for patients.