Lay summary
White cells (macrophages) play an important role in promoting the growth and invasion of cancers by generating protein factors that suppress the body’s immune responses and increasing tumour blood supply. The proliferation of these macrophages is driven by a protein called colony stimulating factor-1 which occurs at very high levels in cancers. Drugs to inhibit this protein are just being developed, but to date are not very specific. We have found a novel class of drugs that can effectively and selectively shut down this protein. The aim of the project is to optimize this class of compound and select a candidate inhibitor of colony stimulating factor-1 for clinical trial.