For this research, TGen investigators used cutting-edge technology to screen 572 kinases, the body's protein enzymes that affect how cells function. They discovered 55 siRNAs - strands of RNA molecules that affect the expression of genes - that to some degree enabled cisplatin to slow the growth of cancer cells.

According to the paper, one of those small molecule inhibitors, PD 407824, was especially effective in sensitizing ovarian cancer cells, SKOV3 and OVCAR3, to the growth inhibiting effects of cisplatin. PD 407824 and SB 218078 were the two small molecule inhibitors to CHEK1, that were found to sensitize pancreatic cancer cells to the chemotherapy drug gemcitabine, according to a paper published by the same group last year in the Journal of Translational Medicine.

"Our new data provide kinase targets that could be exploited to design better therapeutics for ovarian cancer patients," said Dr. David Azorsa, Head of TGen's Biological Therapeutics Lab and the senior author of the paper published in Gynecologic Oncology.

In addition, Shilpi Arora, a TGen Staff Scientist and the paper's lead author, said this data, "also demonstrate the effectiveness of high-throughput RNAi screening as a tool for identifying sensitizing targets to known and established chemotherapeutic agents."

Source: The Translational Genomics Research Institute