Predicting prognosis and treatment response of breast cancer patients using expression and cellular localization of N-myristoyltransferase
AssigneeOncodrex Inc.
InventorAnuraag Shrivastav
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
High levels of nuclear NMT1 are associated with longer relapse free survival in ERα positive breast cancer patients. Both low levels of cytosolic and nuclear NMT1 correlated to very poor clinical outcomes. NMT2 also plays an important function in breast cancer signalling, regulated through phosphorylation. For example, NMT2 phosphorylation status is a key element in the progression of ER+ breast cancer cells. Specifically, nuclear localization of NMT2 is associated with poor outcomes in breast cancer patients.
Claims21
A method of slowing progression of a breast cancer tumor or improving outcome of a breast cancer treatment comprising:
- administering an effective amount of an NMT phosphorylation and/or nuclear translocation inhibitor to a patient having a cancerous breast tumor, thereby preventing phosphorylation of NMT2 and/or nuclear localization of NMT2.
A method of identifying a compound capable of inhibiting nuclear translocation of cytoplasmic NMT2 comprising:
- in an in vitro system, growing a plurality of test cells under conditions suitable for nuclear translocation of cytoplasmic NMT2 in the presence of a compound of interest wherein but for the presence of the compound of interest, cytoplasmic NMT2 will migrate into the nucleus of a respective one cell of the plurality of cells;
- and
- determining if cytoplasmic NMT2 has translocated into the nucleus of at least one of the plurality of test cells in the presence of the compound of interest,
- wherein if less cytoplasmic NMT2 has translocated into the nucleus of the at least one representative cell of the plurality of cells than translocated into the nucleus of at least one control cell grown under similar conditions except for the presence of the compound of interest, the compound of interest inhibits nuclear translocation of cytoplasmic NMT2.
A method of determining prognosis of a hormone positive breast cancer patient comprising:
- extracting a cell sample from a breast tumor of a hormone positive breast cancer patient;
- and
- determining nuclear and cytoplasmic levels of NMT1 in one or more cells of the cell sample;
- wherein:
- if cytoplasmic levels of NMT1 are high, the prognosis is poor;
- if nuclear levels of NMT1 are high, the prognosis is good;
- and
- if both nuclear and cytoplasmic levels are low, the prognosis is worse.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.