(Montreal) A molecule used for decades to treat chronic alcoholism could prove useful in combating neuroblastoma, a potentially catastrophic form of brain cancer in children.
A sophisticated pharmacological screening put researcher Noël Raynal, from the CHU Sainte-Justine Research Center, and his team on the trail of disulfiram, a drug whose anticancer properties had already been described by other researchers.
“Among the pediatric lines that we have in the laboratory, the neuroblastoma cells really seemed to be the most sensitive among all those that we tested to the anticancer effect of disulfiram,” summarized Professor Raynal.
Disulfiram, he explained, helps combat chronic alcoholism by blocking the effect of an enzyme that also appears to be very important for cancer cells.
Disulfiram is thought to attenuate the expression of cancer-promoting genes by neuroblastoma cells, thereby reducing their ability to multiply.
Other researchers had previously been interested in the anticancer action of disulfiram, among other things to combat breast and lung cancers.
In one study, for example, the group of patients treated with standard chemotherapy and who were also given disulfiram survived longer than the group treated with chemotherapy alone, without an increase in toxicity.
However, neuroblastoma cells seem even more sensitive to the action of the molecule than breast and lung cancer cells.
“We are very encouraged,” said Mr. Raynal.
Neuroblastoma is a disease whose presentation can be quite heterogeneous. While some small patients will be able to recover with a minimum of treatment, others will need major interventions, with no guarantee of recovery. It is the latter that disulfiram could benefit the most.
Even though disulfiram has been used for 70 years and even though it is a molecule whose toxicity is well known, it will still take several years of work before it is added to the arsenal of weapons against cancer.
The findings of this study were published by Scientific Reports.