Understanding how common cancer drugs affect the heart

Effects of MKK1/2 and ERK1/2 inhibitors on cardiac function and hypertrophy

Several drugs to treat cancer are known to have long-term side effects on the heart. Among them are drugs that impact a series of proteins which talk to each other, called the ERK1/2 pathway. This pathway promotes cancer, but it also protects the heart. Blocking it can result in heart problems in some patients. Professor Clerk and her team at the University of Reading have been studying drugs that block the ERK1/2 pathway in mice, and found that they disrupt normal heart function including its ability to adapt to high blood pressure. In this project, they will investigate the ways in which these drugs affect healthy hearts and cause hypertrophy, which is when the heart muscle wall becomes thickened and cannot contract, and therefore pump, properly. They will work on heart cells grown in the lab and will also study the heart function of mice treated with the drugs. The results will provide insight into how these cancer treatments affect the heart. This could also help identify people who should avoid treatments that block the ERK1/2 pathway because they are at increased risk of side effects to their heart. It will also help researchers develop new ways to prevent the damage to heart cells caused by this group of drugs.