'Jekyll and Hyde' protein offers new route to cancer drugs

The mood changes of a 'Jekyll-and-Hyde' protein, which sometimes boosts tumour cell growth and at other times suppresses it, have been explained in a new study led by Oxford University researchers. The researchers in Britain, with collaborators in Singapore and the USA, carried out a comprehensive biological study of the protein E2F, which is abnormal in the vast majority of cancers. They were able to explain the dual natures it can take up in cells in the body, and indicate how it could be a potent target for developing new cancer drugs. The Oxford University scientists have since carried out a drug-discovery screen, and shown that compounds which block the protein's change into 'Mr Hyde' result in the death of cancer cells. 'This mechanism for switching a key protein is very novel. Nothing else I've come across behaves like it,' says Professor Nick La Thangue of the Department of Oncology at Oxford University, who led the work. 'Subtle changes in terms of the chemistry of the protein have dramatic and polar opposite effects on the tumour cell, either allowing them to continuously grow or switching them to cell death mode.