project
Domino Effect
Immunotherapy against osteosarcoma (a highly aggressive bone cancer) and triple-negative breast cancer
details
patients affected (new diagnoses each year)
Melanoma: worldwide ~ 338,000 Europe (EU-27) ~ 151,000
Colorectal cancer: worldwide ~ 2,000,000 Europe ~ 527,000
Type of therapy
Immunotherapy
Support already allocated
1.125.000 €
Project start
2025
Our project leaders are developing a treatment that blocks an enzyme (ELP3) crucial to the growth and resistance of cancer cells. Its action will have a double effect: the self-destruction of tumor cells AND the activation of our immune system to eliminate them.
To grow rapidly and resist treatment, cancer cells produce certain proteins on a massive scale.
At the heart of this dynamic, an enzyme (ELP3) plays a decisive role. To put it simply, it supplies the oil that keeps the gears of the tumor machine running at full speed and surviving attacks.
Notably, the cancer stem cells responsible for relapses are particularly dependent on ELP3 enzymes to change shape, move, escape the immune system and resist treatment.
This project aims to develop an innovative molecule that blocks the ELP3 enzyme and triggers a double effect: the self-destruction of tumor cells AND the activation of the immune system to eliminate them.
Domino Effect 1
The molecule developed by our project leader works by blocking this enzyme.
This disrupts the production of growth and resistance proteins to the point that the weakened cancer cells self-destruct.
Domino Effect 2
The resulting blockages force cancer cells to send signals from their surface. These attract several “soldiers” of our immune system (T lymphocytes as well as NK cells), which attack and eliminate them.
Initially, the molecule is being developed against melanoma (stages III and IV) to determine the optimal and tolerable dose of the treatment.
It will then target colorectal cancers, which have very high relapse rates (30 to 40% within 3 years).
