Busting Cancer by Interfering with Cell Messaging

In 10 seconds? Drugs activating the c-GAS STING signaling pathway are in development to help take out tumors. These drugs are being studied alone or in combination with treatments like radiotherapy, immunotherapy, and chemotherapy to amplify their effects.

What do you mean by ‘signaling pathways’? In order for individual cells to work in sync with our bodies they must be able to receive and interpret a variety of cellular messages (signals). These signals may come from inside or outside the cell and can convey a range of information, from signaling growth and division to alerting an imminent threat. Signaling pathways are defined pipelines inside cells that work to receive signals and pass them on until a desired effect is produced. The signal is picked up by a protein at the beginning of a pathway (often called a receptor) and relayed further by a series of messengers along the pathway. There are many signaling pathways inside cells.