Braxten Hornsby and Team Published in Molecular Pharmaceutics
Congratulations to Molecular Pharmaceutics Ph.D. student Braxten Hornsby, first author of the recent publication, "Mitochondrially Targeted p53-Bad* Fusion Gene Therapy Promotes Apoptosis in Hepatocellular Carcinoma by Pan-Bcl-2 Inhibition", in Molecular Pharmaceutics. Co-authors include Molecular Pharmaceutics Ph.D. student Julius Tuekpe, Cassidy Steele, Amber Devereaux, Dr. Katherine Bowman, and Dr. Carol Lim.
This paper elucidates the mechanism of action (MOA) of the cancer gene therapy construct p53-Bad*, which functions through inhibition of anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 family proteins. Findings present evidence for p53-Bad* as a potential pan-Bcl-2 inhibitor, supporting its use as a translatable gene therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)—the most common form of liver cancer and the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide.
This research marks a major step forward in developing innovative gene therapies for cancer treatment.
