BioCentury
ARTICLE | Distillery Therapeutics

Cancer

January 31, 2018 10:11 PM UTC

Patient sample, cell culture and mouse studies suggest inhibiting IRF3 could help treat gastric cancer. In patient samples, high levels of IRF3 tumor RNA and protein correlated with tumor size and poor survival. In human gastric cancer cell lines, siRNA targeting IRF3 decreased proliferation and colony formation compared with a non-specific siRNA. In a xenograft mouse model of gastric cancer, shRNA targeting IRF3 decreased tumor size compared with scrambled siRNA. Also in the model, the IRF3 inhibitor amlexanox decreased tumor growth compared with vehicle. In a mouse model of Helicobacter pylori-induced gastric cancer, IRF3 knockout decreased tumor size compared with normal IRF3 expression. Next steps could include identifying and testing IRF3 inhibitors in gastric cancer models...