Science and hope are a powerful combination for KCU researcher Ehab Sarsour, PhD, assistant professor of cellular and molecular biology, and fourth-year medical student Katiana Hebbert. The student-teacher duo discovered a new and promising avenue for treating pancreatic cancer by treating the tumor microenvironment and repurposing a drug designed for hyperlipidemia.
Their discovery builds on research published by Sarsour in 2020 in the Journal of Biological Chemistry as well as a recently published abstract in Free Radical Biology and Medicine, the premier forum for publishing ground-breaking research in the redox biology of health and disease. The research found that pancreatic cancer cells receive support from fatty acids that feed pancreatic cancer tumors and protect them from radiation and chemotherapy.
Sarsour grew up in Amman, Jordan, the son of a Palestinian refugee who held three jobs at once, valued meaningful work and supported his children’s education. After earning degrees in microbiology and immunology, Sarsour wanted to expand his opportunities in academic research, and immigrated to the United States.
He began his research with a focus on aging, which he explains is not in itself a disease but can be a risk factor for many diseases, including cancer – especially cancer of the pancreas. Sarsour hopes to make inroads in one of the deadliest cancers of all. “Cancer is like a live evil,” he said. “It is like a pathogen, changing itself and eluding treatment. My goal is to give help and hope to anyone facing this disease.”
Sarsour said that as humans age, the risk of cancer increases due to metabolic change dependent on fatty acids and lipids. Fatty acids help pancreatic tumor cells resist radiation and chemotherapy. He and Hebbert decided to target those fatty acids that protect the tumor cells.
Hebbert repurposed acipimox, an FDA-approved drug by Pfizer used to treat hyperlipidemia, to target the environment around the cancer before using radiation and chemotherapy.
The results were stunning.
“Katiana’s research work resulted in making cancer cells weaker, depriving them of nourishment from the microenvironment they were in that enables them to be resilient,” Sarsour said.
Equally significant, Hebbert noted, the drug was able to stop the growth of the cancer by lowering the levels of fatty acids both inside and outside the cells surrounding the cancer cells. “We were able to impact one of the most important parts of the cancer cells' growth by blocking their ability to replicate,” Hebbert said. “We were thrilled to be able to halt cancer cells proliferation by activating a metabolic checkpoint that prevents cancer cells from replicating their DNA to divide and reproduce. This missing checkpoint is a major reason why cancer cells do not stop dividing and progress.”
An added benefit, the weaker the cancer cells are, the less chemotherapy and radiation may be needed for a patient to see results. “If this can help radiation and chemo perform better and limit normal cell toxicity at the same time, that would a great double whammy,” she said.
For Sarsour, the research is all about helping others. None of his family members have faced cancer. For Hebbert, the research is more personal.
“I just have a lot of people close to me who have been afflicted with cancer throughout my life,” Hebbert said. “Cancer is one of those diseases you hope you can help treat and cure.”
When she arrived at the KCU College of Osteopathic Medicine, she heard Sarsour lecture on cancer during her scientific foundations of medicine course.
“I knew that if I ever entered research, I wanted it to be something related to cancer,” Hebbert explained. She didn’t know anything about laboratory research, but what she lacked in experience she made up for with motivation. Soon, Hebbert was learning everything from pipetting to graphing and computer systems. In the summer months, she was awarded a Summer Student Research Fellowship to continue learning and researching.
“As long as you are motivated and willing to put in the time and effort, working in a lab while in medical school is certainly possible,” she said. “You can absolutely do it.”
Under the guidance of Sarsour and the laboratory team, Hebbert has excelled. She recently received a prestigious award from the International Congress of Radiation Research (ICRR) for the work, which ICRR judges called “groundbreaking.” She presented the findings to an international panel of radiation researchers considered to be the best in the field. “I was very humbled,” Hebbert recalled. "It was especially gratifying to be approached by a research assistant at the University of California Los Angeles who hopes to enter osteopathic medical school. After hearing me at the conference, she now knows there is a place for research in osteopathic education and has KCU on her list.”
More research is underway in Sarsour’s laboratory, testing the mechanism of the drug in cells as well as safety. “We want to prove the biology of the drug and that it does what it is supposed to do inside the cell. I am very suspicious of positive results,” Sarsour noted. “We tested it many times; we tested it on more than one cell line, other people looked at it. If we can prove the drug is impactful, there will be more hope for those impacted by this deadly disease.”
Sarsour is currently applying for research grants that could bring the protocol to clinical trials within three years. He says this would be a dream come true.
“As a scientist, your science has to have impact,” he explained. “Otherwise it is just an article in a journal. This is one way to translate my basic science to clinical science.”
Additionally, Sarsour and his students are collaborating with researchers from the University of Iowa, the University of California system and the pharmaceutical company Loxagen, Inc. for research on using an investigational new drug to target defective fibroblast cells within pancreatic tumors.
Hebbert, who vacillates between a career in oncology and family medicine after graduation, hopes to stay involved in the lab that offered her the opportunity to make a difference.
“I want this to go all the way and truly help people and impact lives. This is how I can make a change.”
Summer Student Research Fellowships are funded in part by KCU alumni and donors. You can make a difference and support future KCU student researchers like Katiana by visiting kansascity.edu/give to make a gift today.
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