July 29, 2013

Hepatitis drug eyed for prostate cancer

July 30, 2013

The Yomiuri Shimbun Anticancer drugs are likely to be more effective against prostate cancer, which is resistant to such drugs, if they are administered with medicine used to treat hepatitis C, according to recent research using mice.

A joint research team of Keio University and the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) announced the finding in the online version of the Japanese Cancer Association’s journal. The discovery is expected to contribute to the development of treatment for highly malignant forms of cancer.

The team, led by Keio University Prof. Toshio Suda, focused on Oct4, a gene known for its association with prostate cancer that is highly resistant to drug treatment. Isolating high-grade cancer cells strongly influenced by Oct4, the team examined genes related to malignant transformations and compared them to ordinary cancer cells.

Using a database of the effects on cancer cell genes of about 1,300 candidate substances for medicine, the team discovered nine candidate substances that could help suppress genes that play a role in the formation of malignant tumors.

The team administered one of the candidates, Ribavirin, which is used to treat hepatatis C, along with an anticancer drug to six mice that had high-grade prostate cancer transplanted onto their backs. Although the cancerous cells grew from 150 cubic centimeters to 190 cubic centimeters, their growth was smaller than that for mice that were administered only anticancer drugs. The cancer grew to 300 cubic millimeters in one of the latter cases.

Source

No comments:

Post a Comment