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Cancer therapy

Repurposing the dopamine transporter antagonist vanoxerine to treat colorectal cancer

Nature Cancer volume 5, pages 378–379 (2024)Cite this article

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Self-renewing cancer stem cells drive tumor initiation and progression and represent a major target for therapeutic development. A study now shows that vanoxerine, a dopamine transporter antagonist, precisely inhibits this cell population in colorectal cancer, which leads to attenuation of tumor initiation and increased infiltration by immune cells.

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Fig. 1: VXN’s mechanism of action in CSCs.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nash Family Department of Neuroscience, Friedman Brain Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA

    Winnie Chen & Ian Maze

  2. Department of Pharmacological Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA

    Ian Maze

  3. Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA

    Ian Maze

Authors
  1. Winnie Chen
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  2. Ian Maze
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Correspondence to Ian Maze.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Chen, W., Maze, I. Repurposing the dopamine transporter antagonist vanoxerine to treat colorectal cancer. Nat Cancer 5, 378–379 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43018-024-00723-2

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