New Cancer Drug Hope
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Scientists helping to develop the next generation of cancer-beating drugs say they have had a major breakthrough with their latest results.
A new class of drugs - being developed by a major pharmaceutical company - targets an enzyme that helps cells divide; in cancer, this enzyme, called Aurora B, goes into overdrive, possibly leading to uncontrolled and abnormal cell divisions.
The University of Manchester team has been studying a chemical that blocks, or inhibits, the catalytic actions of Aurora B and has proven very effective at killing cancer cells in cultures grown in the laboratory.
“The first compounds were designed to inhibit a related enzyme called Aurora A,” said Dr Stephen Taylor, who is leading the research in Manchester’s Faculty of Life Sciences.
“But our research has shown that inhibiting Aurora B is a far more successful method of killing cancer cells and we have been strongly encouraged by these latest results.”
The research - published in the Journal of Cell Science - will be of interest to scientists around the world looking at Aurora inhibitors; there are currently more than 10 companies pursuing Aurora cancer programmes.
“Auroras have attracted worldwide attention but no one has been entirely sure which strategy to follow,” said Dr Taylor.
“Our paper clearly demonstrates that targeting Aurora B is a highly attractive avenue to pursue, although inhibition of Aurora A may still have some merits as a potential therapy.”
Early clinical trials of the Aurora-B drug’s toxicity have also been encouraging, with no major adverse effects to patients being reported. The next stage of trials to test its effectiveness is likely to start shortly.
“A lot of current cancer drugs, while effective, are also toxic; by contrast, the toxic effects of Aurora inhibitors have been relatively mild and so could provide a revolutionary new way to treat cancer in the future.”
Aurora A and B are a type of enzyme known as protein kinases; they modify other proteins by chemically adding phosphate groups to them. In cancer, both these protein kinases are ‘overexpressed.’
The University of Manchester team has been working on the Aurora B inhibitor in collaboration with pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca. The group published an earlier paper in 2003 that highlighted the potential success of targeting Aurora B. These latest findings further strengthen the team’s belief that Aurora B inhibition is the preferred route to an effective cancer therapy.
[tags]University of Manchester, Stephen Taylor, Aurora B, cancer treatment[/tags]
2 Comments
Gretgory D. Pawelski
October 31st, 2006
at 12:18am
Cells are the most basic structure of the body. Cells make up tissues, and tissues make up organs, such as the lungs, liver, kidneys. Normally, these cells grow and divide to form new cells as the body needs them. Sometimes this orderly process goes wrong. Sometimes new cells form when the body does not need them, and the old cells do not die when they should.
When this happens, these extra cells can form a mass of tissue called a tumor. Cells in a cancerous tumor are abnormal and divide without order. They can invade and damage nearby tissues and organs, and can break away from a malignant tumor and spread to other parts of the body (metastasis).
Normal chemotherapy kills both cancer cells and healthy normal cells (mainly rapidly-dividing cells). Oncologists try to minimize damage to normal cells and to enhance the cell-killing effect on cancer cells. Too often, this delicate balance is not achieved.
Targeted therapy drugs interfere with specific molecules (receptors and enzymes inside and outside a cancer cell). By focusing on these molecular and cellular changes, targeted cancer drugs go after the “target” in these cells, rather than just all cells. Because of this, “targeted” drugs may be more effective than current treatments, and may be less harmful to normal cells.
Whole cell profiling can discriminate between the activity of different “targeted” drugs and identify situations in which it is advantageous to combine the “targeted” drugs with other types of cancer drugs. Because these new “smart” drugs will work for “some” but not “all” cancer patients who receive them, whole cell profiling can accurately identify patients who would benefit from treatment with molecularly-targeted anti-cancer therapies.
Not only is this an important predictive test that is available, but it is also a unique tool that can help to identify newer and better drugs, evaluate promising drug combinations, and serve as a “gold standard” correlative model with which to develop new DNA, RNA, and protein-based tests that better predict for drug activity.
This kind of technique exists, and might be very valuable, especially when active chemoagents are limited in a particular disease; it makes more sense than ever to test the tumor first. Afterall, cutting-edge techniques can often provide superior results over tried-and-true methods that have been around for many years.
Ernie Carrion
February 10th, 2008
at 3:16pm
This is a very cool article. Being a cancer survivor and hearing about any type of new hope found on drugs to beat cancer is really uplifting.