Vincent Cryns, MD (pictured at right), professor and head, Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, and Richard Anderson, PhD (pictured at far right), professor, School of Medicine and Public Health, have been awarded $1.5M over three years from the United States Department of Defense office of the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP) for a project entitled “Targeting a Novel Lipid Kinase Complex that Regulates Mutant p53 Stability in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer.” 

The funding was granted through the Breast Cancer Research Program (BCRP) Breakthrough Award (Funding Level 2).

Drs. Cryns and Anderson are testing the hypothesis that phosphoinositol phosphate (PIP) 5-kinase (PIPKIa) and its product, phosphoinositol-4,5-bisphosphate (PIP2), control the stability of a mutant form of the tumor suppressor p53 by regulating its interaction with αB-crystallin by preventing its export to the cytosol and subsequent autophagic lysosomal degradation. 

The team will determine whether inhibiting PIPKIa disrupts this complex and promotes mutant p53 lysosomal degradation, thereby inducing cell death in triple (ER/PR/HER2)-negative breast cancer (TNBC) cells. Researchers hope that these studies could provide insight into TNBC cell survival and sensitivity to chemotherapy, and ultimately lead to improved treatments that selectively kill TNBC cells.

Resources:

• US Department of Defense Congressionally-Directed Medical Research Program: Breast Cancer