Drug repositioning for the precision treatment of patients with lung adenocarcinomas.

• Grant number: 24/08978-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: September 01, 2024
• End date: October 25, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Genetics - Human and Medical Genetics
• Principal Investigator: Robson Francisco Carvalho
• Grantee: Mateus Alves Diniz
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IBB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Botucatu. Botucatu , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Lung cancer is the second most diagnosed type of cancer worldwide and the most lethal, accounting for 18% of all cancer deaths in 2020. Although chemotherapy is widely used in treatment, variability in patient responses to the same treatment remains a significant challenge. One reason for this variability is the difference in tumor transcriptional profiles among patients. Studies have combined drug-induced gene expression profiles with tumor-specific expression profiles to identify compounds effective in reversing cancer-associated gene expression. Emerging technologies, such as single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-Seq), allow detailed analysis of gene expression profiles of malignant cells, elucidating transcriptomic particularities of each patient that may explain different treatment responses. This study will analyze gene expression signatures of malignant cells from patients with lung adenocarcinoma, comparing them with drug-induced gene expression profiles. We will use scRNA-Seq data from malignant and normal alveolar cells of patients available in the "The Cancer Curated Cell Atlas" and compare them with profiles induced by 4518 drugs in lung cancer cell lines, using the OCTAD tool. The goal is to identify drugs with high potential to reverse lung cancer gene expression signatures, validating these results with in vitro experimental data. This project aims to demonstrate the potential of precision medicine in identifying more effective treatments for lung cancer.