In the United States, cancer continues to be the second leading cause of death, trailing only heart disease, with millions more afflicted with the disease each year.
At South Dakota State University, Rachel Willand-Charnley, assistant professor in the Department Chemistry, Biochemistry and Physics, leads an interdisciplinary research lab—the RAWC Lab—whose work revolves around improving cancer treatments.
When specific forms of sialic acid are"overexpressed" by the cell, their previous research has that it can evade immune cell-mediated killings and participate in multi-drug resistance. As a result, targeted glycan-related drugs is necessary investigative work.Chemotherapeutics are specifically designed treatments that attack and kill cancer cells in the body.
"The lab uncovered a mechanism in which lung and colon cancers utilize a sugar residue to engage in multidrug resistance," Willand-Charnley, an interdisciplinary applied organic chemist who specializes in glycobiology and cancer immunology, said.are using a specific type of sugar—deacetylated sialic acid—to efflux or"spit" chemotherapeutics out of the cell.
"We can develop targeted therapies that target or inhibit this protein inside of the cell to stop the process from happening," Willand-Charnley said.
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