Endometriosis can be a debilitatingly painful disease which can lead to infertility, and has few treatment options for more severe forms – but new treatment options are unfolding as genetic targets for drugs are discovered.
Jake Reske, a graduate student in the MSU Genetics and Genome Sciences Program, explains: “There haven’t been many successful nonhormonal therapies for this form of endometriosis that have made it to the bedside yet.”
Some severe forms of endometriosis involve a gene called ARID1A. A mutation in this gene triggers “super-enhancer” DNA which in turn allows cells to run rampant and set up outside the uterus, causing great pelvic pain.
The researchers aim to implement a novel treatment, “epigenetic therapy”, to prevent the cells from running rampant.
“It can seriously impact women’s quality of life and their ability to have a family and work,” said study supervisor Ronald Chandler, an assistant professor of obstetrics, gynaecology and reproductive biology. “It’s not easy to treat, and it can become resistant to hormone therapy. The most clinically impactful thing we found is that targeting super-enhancers might be a new treatment for this deeply invasive form of the disease.”
The compound they used targeted protein called P300, which suppressed the super-enhancers and relieving the effects of the ARID1A mutation. This could also possibly be applied to other forms of endometriosis. The researchers plan to look for more compounds that can also target the P300 protein.
Source: News-Medical.Net
