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 has 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.
Source: The University of Manchester
Related stories:
Clue to genetic cause of fatal birth defect
A novel enzyme may play a major role in anencephaly, offering hope for a genetic test or even therapy for the rare fatal birth defect in which the brain fails to develop, according to a study from researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine.
Researchers shed light on shrinking of chromosomes
A human cell contains an enormous 1.8 metres of DNA partitioned into 46 chromosomes. These have to be copied and distributed equally into two daughter cells at every division. Condensation, the shortening of chromosomes, allows the cell to handle such huge amounts of genetic material during cell division and helps preventing fatal defects in chromosome separation. Now researchers from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) for the first time tracked chromosome condensation in mammalian cells over the entire course of cell division. In this week’s advanced online publication of Nature Cell Biology they report crucial new insights into timing, function and molecular basis of chromosome condensation.
Run amok enzyme causes same problems in both humans and fruit flies
An enzyme found at elevated levels in several human cancers has been linked to abnormal tumor growth in fruit flies, a discovery that provides a new model for understanding the link between stem cell biology and cancer, according to researchers at the University of Oregon.
Bladder cancer detected via amplified gene in cells found in urine
Counting the copies of a specific gene in cells gathered from a urine sample may provide a simple, noninvasive way to detect bladder cancer, a team led by researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center reports in the
Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Dividing cells find their middle by following a protein 'contour map'
Self-organization keeps schools of fish, flocks of birds and colonies of termites in sync. It’s also, according to new research, the way cells regulate the final stage of cell division. Scientists at Rockefeller University have shown that a protein-chemistry-based contour map, which helps individual proteins locate the center of their cell without direction from a “master organizer,” is key to ensuring accurate division during mitosis.
Combination of 2 novel anti-cancer agents may help fight CML resistant to current therapy
Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center researchers have identified that a combination of novel anti-cancer compounds is able to kill chronic myelogenous leukemia cells previously resistant to conventional forms of therapy.
The Watchdogs of chromosome-segregation
Chromosomes are duplicated before they are segregated in equal parts to daughter-cells during cell division. An important regulator of this chromosome-separation is the "chromosomal passenger complex", a protein complex which plays a central role in cell division and in ongoing research on cancer development.
Disease-free mosquito bred to disease-carrier can have all disease-free progeny
A decade ago, scientists announced the ability to introduce foreign genes into the mosquito genome. A year ago, scientists announced the successful use of an artificial gene that prevented a virus from replicating within mosquitoes. But how does one apply what can be done with a small number of mosquitoes in a lab to the tens of millions of mosquitoes that spread disease worldwide?