New Cancer Drug Heads to Clinical Trials

Programmed cell death, commonly referred to as apoptosis, is a normal and highly regulated process where cells die after a set time period. This process is used to remove defective and unnecessary cells. Deregulation of apoptosis and an irregular system are usually signs of cancer. When cancer forms in the body, the cancer cells do not have an apoptotic course, so they grow uncontrollably and indefinitely. Current cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy, immunotherapy and radiation work by inducing apoptosis in the cancer cells. This is not always effective though because of the irregular apoptotic pathways in the cancer cells, and they often become resistant to these therapies. Dr. Shaomeng Wang and his team have created a new drug that seems to be solving this issue. AT-406 works by removing the proteins that block apoptosis in cancer cells, therefore promoting apoptosis of the cancer cells, and directly reducing the resistance to other treatments of these cells. These proteins are called IAP’s, or inhibitor of apoptosis proteins. In the clinical trials of AT-406, the drug has had minimal, if any, effect on normal cells, and it reduced tumor size and caused few side effects.

I chose this article because it deals with cancer research, and I am very interested in both the research aspect and also pharmacology. I found it fascinating how the doctors are tweaking current therapies, and creating a whole new class of drugs that seem to be working remarkably well in the battle against cancer.

Article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/03/110329134302.htm
Picture: http://www.ascenta.com/development/index.php