Scientists have engineered small, targeted proteins that can penetrate brain cancer cells and prevent them from invading healthy tissue, offering a promising new approach to treating glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), one of the deadliest forms of brain cancer. This strategy was developed by researchers at the University of Nevada, Reno, and published recently in Oncotarget.
The Challenge of Treating Glioblastoma Multiforme
Glioblastoma is an aggressive and fast-growing brain tumor that infiltrates healthy brain tissue, making complete surgical removal nearly impossible. Standard treatments like chemotherapy and radiation can slow its growth but rarely prevent it from returning. One major reason for this invasiveness is a group of enzymes known as matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), which break down surrounding tissue to allow cancer cells to spread. Among these, MMP-9 plays a particularly important role in driving tumor progression and resisting existing therapies.
Attempts to block MMPs using small-molecule drugs have failed in clinical trials due to problems like poor selectivity and harmful side effects. Researchers have been searching for safer, more targeted methods to interfere with these enzymes and limit glioblastoma’s spread.
The Study: Engineered Proteins to Inhibit Tumor Invasion
In the study called “Effect of TIMPs and their minimally engineered variants in blocking invasion and migration of brain cancer cells,” researchers Elham Taheri and Maryam Raeeszadeh-Sarmazdeh investigated tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases (TIMPs), which are natural blockers of MMPs, and their engineered modified versions made to work better. Specifically, the team studied TIMP-1, TIMP-3, along with two engineered molecules, mTC1 and mTC3, in laboratory cell models of GBM.
Full blog - https://www.oncotarget.org/2025/05/21/engineered-proteins-show-promise-in-stopping-glioblastoma-invasion/
Paper DOI - https://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.28691
Correspondence to - Maryam Raeeszadeh-Sarmazdeh - maryamr@unr.edu
Video short - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdBlkOX50D8
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Keywords - cancer, TIMP minimal variants, glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), brain cancer, MMP inhibitors
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