Investigating how an anaemia drug can kill cancer cells

Overview

Cancer is a leading cause of death in Aotearoa.

Most cancer deaths occur when cancers spread to different regions of the body, called metastasis. Metastases in the brain have a particularly poor outcome and are challenging to treat.

We are investigating a drug (ferumoxytol) normally used to treat iron-deficiency anaemia – a drug that can cross into the brain and accumulate in macrophages.

Ferumoxytol is an FDA-approved iron nanoparticle, which has also been used to image brain tumours. Early clinical data from our Dunedin collaborators suggests that patients, whose brain tumours accumulate more ferumoxytol, have a better outcome than those whose tumours accumulate less of the drug.

In this laboratory study we will test why brain metastases are vulnerable to the anaemia drug. We hypothesise that ferumoxytol accumulates in macrophages and then destroys neighbouring cancer cells by ferroptosis (iron overload leading to cell death).

The student will employ advanced cell culture and biochemical analyses to investigate this clinically relevant drug.

Useful information

• Graduate research at the University of Otago
• Scholarships at the University of Otago