Authors: James Ho CS, Anna Rydström, Maria Trulsson, Johannes Bålfors, Petter Storm, Manoj Puthia, Aftab Nadeem, Catharina Svanborg

Journal: Future Medicine (2012)

Institution: Lund University

Research Areas: Cancer research

Summary: Human α-lactalbumin made lethal to tumor cells (HAMLET) is the first member in a new family of protein-lipid complexes that kills tumor cells with high selectivity. HAMLET is broadly tumoricidal, suggesting that the complex identifies conserved death pathways suitable for targeting by novel therapies. Therapeutic effects of HAMLET have been demonstrated in human skin papillomas and bladder cancers, and HAMLET limits the progression of human glioblastomas, with no evidence of toxicity for normal brain or bladder tissue. These findings open up new avenues for cancer therapy and the understanding of conserved death responses in tumor cells.

Keywords: Review, clinical studies, conserved death, pathways, HAMLET, cancer therapies, protein folding, protein–lipid complex, tumor cell death, tumor, specificity, Action of HAMLET