This is an interesting and new approach to tackling cancer. Most
interesting, it appears to tackle the causation of rapid cell growth
itself. Just halting that would be almost deemed a cure.
Hopefully this all pays off. To date it is very promising, but the
present test protocol may need a lot of jigging before it is safe to
play.
One more item to track in the continuing fight to bring cancer under
control.
Cancer treatment
that blocks cellular “protein factories” set to begin clinical
trials
By Darren Quick
01:13 July 10, 2012
A new cancer treatment
targeting cellular 'protein factories' is set to begin clinical
trials
Researchers at
Melbourne’s Peter MacCallum (Peter Mac) Cancer Centre are set to
begin clinical trials of a cancer treatment they say represents a
major shift in molecular approaches to treating the disease. The
treatment, which has proven successful in the lab against lymphoma
and leukemia cells, targets the production of proteins within the
heart of cancer cells, while leaving healthy cells relatively
unaffected.
Ribosomes are a
complex of molecules found within all living cells – including
cancerous and healthy cells – that are responsible for the
formation of proteins from individual amino acids. Associate
Professor Ross Hannan, Co-Head of the Oncogenic Signalling and Growth
Control Program at Peter Mac, says that the production of ribosomes,
known as ribosome biogenesis, which occurs in both the cell cytoplasm
and cell nucleus, was previously assumed to be a “housekeeping”
operation that could not be targeted by anti-cancer drugs.
But Hannan, who has
spent most of his research career investigating ribosome biogenesis
and its importance to the biology of cancer cells, suspected
otherwise.
“It was an unproven
theory for many years, but I was confident we were on the right
track, the key signs were there: when ribosome biogenesis is
dysregulated, proteins are overproduced, creating rampant cell
growth, a hallmark of cancer; and abnormalities of the nucleolus, the
site of ribosome biogenesis, have been used as an indicator of cancer
for over 100 years.”
The research team
confirmed Hanna’s suspicions, finding that blocking this routine
cellular process within cancer cells can selectively kill them, while
leaving healthy cells unaffected.
“We’ve
demonstrated that cancer cells are far more dependent on their
ability to make ribosomes than normal cells, and therefore, much more
vulnerable if these ‘protein factories’ come under attack,”
said Hannan.
“When we blocked
the enzyme responsible for producing the major ribosomal components
in pre-clinical laboratory models, it set off a chain of events that
killed lymphoma and leukaemia cells, but left normal, healthy cells
unaffected,” added Professor Grant McArthur, Co-Head of the
Cancer Therapeutics Program, who says these findings suggest that a
new class of therapies that selectively inhibit ribosome formation
and block protein formation could one day offer effective treatment
of human cancers.
Working with
pharmaceutical company, Cylene Pharmaceuticals, the researchers have
now developed a compound, called CX-5461, that will allow them to
test their research in patients. The first-in-human clinical trials
to establish the safety profile of this approach will commence in
patients with blood cancers at Peter Mac later this year.
“Advanced blood
cancers are very difficult to treat and to have a new targeted weapon
to test at our disposal is incredibly important and, we hope, another
important advance in targeted cancer therapy,” said Dr Simon
Harrison, Consultant Haematologist at Peter Mac and Principal
Investigator of the upcoming phase 1 trial. “To offer this new
trial to Victorians with incurable cancers of the blood system is
fantastic and knowing it has the potential to one day help patients
across the globe is an incredibly exciting development.”
The team's research
appears in the journal Cancer Cell.
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