Are you coming?, Research on anti-cancer drugs that can kill all solid cancer tumors | Drugs | Cancer tumors
On August 2nd, the top cancer research institution in the United States, Hope City, developed a drug that can kill all solid cancer tumors, which attracted a lot of attention. According to the latest paper published by the R&D team in Cell Chemobiology, this AOH1996 targeted chemotherapy drug has shown "enormous potential" in preclinical research. In early research, this new "anticancer" drug was found to be able to "eliminate" various solid cancer tumors.
However, this drug has just started the first phase of clinical trials and there is still a long way to go before it can be successful.
Preclinical studies are effective for various cancers
Can kill cancer cells without damaging healthy cells
Linda Marcus, an oncology professor at "City of Hope," explained that most cancer targeted therapies focus on a single pathway, which causes "cunning cancer cells" to mutate and ultimately develop drug resistance. AOH1996 targets a cancerous variant called proliferating cell nucleus antigen, a mutated form of protein that is crucial for DNA replication and tumor repair.
Marcus described PCNA as a large terminal hub with numerous boarding gates. "The data shows that PCNA undergoes unique changes in cancer cells, which enables us to design a drug that only targets the form of PCNA in cancer cells." She further explained that AOH1996 was like "a blizzard that caused the closure of the terminal hub, grounding all incoming and outgoing flights carrying cancer cells.".
The results showed that AOH1996 was effective in preclinical studies of breast cancer, prostate cancer, brain cancer, ovarian cancer, cervical cancer, skin cancer and lung cancer.
According to a paper published by the team in the Journal of Cellular Chemical Biology, researchers tested AOH1996 in over 70 cancer cell lines and several groups of normal cells. It was found that AOH1996 selectively kills cancer cells by disrupting the normal cell proliferation cycle. Research based therapies prevent cells with damaged DNA from dividing in the G2/M phase and replicating defective DNA in the S phase. Ultimately, AOH1996 caused cancer cell death without interrupting the reproductive cycle of healthy stem cells.
The research results are undoubtedly encouraging. In both cellular and animal models, AOH1996 can inhibit tumor growth as either a monotherapy or a combination therapy without producing toxicity. This experimental chemotherapy drug is currently undergoing a phase one human clinical trial in the City of Hope.
After nearly 20 years of research and development
Originating from a 9-year-old girl who passed away due to cancer
AOH1996 is named after a girl named Anna Olivia Healy. Xili was born in 1996 and died at the age of 9 from a rare childhood cancer called neuroblastoma.
Marcus recalled, "I met Anna's father during her late illness... He asked me if I could do something about neuroblastoma, and he wrote a $25000 check for my laboratory. That moment changed my life and became a crossroads for me."
For nearly 20 years thereafter, Marcus and his team have been dedicated to developing drugs that can combat neuroblastoma and other cancers, ultimately leading to AOH1996.
The first author of the study, Gu Long, stated that no one has ever considered PCNA as a therapeutic drug because it is considered "non pharmacological", but it is clear that the team of "City of Hope" ultimately developed an investigational drug targeting this challenging protein target.
However, before widespread use, this drug still needs to undergo rigorous safety and efficacy testing, as well as large-scale clinical trials. The research team also acknowledges in the article that positive animal research results may not always translate into success in treating cancer patients, and "future clinical studies still need to determine their efficacy in cancer treatment."
At present, the first clinical patient began receiving medication treatment in October last year, and the first phase of clinical trials is still ongoing, expected to last for at least two years.
"Now that we know the problem and can suppress it, we will delve deeper into the development of more personalized and targeted cancer drugs," Gu Long said.
According to reports, another benefit of AOH1996 is that it can make cancer cells more susceptible to drug attacks that cause damage to cell DNA or chromosomes, such as chemotherapy drug cisplatin. This means that this new drug may become a useful tool for combination therapy and the development of new chemotherapy drugs in the future.
"We can't help Anna in time, but we hope to help people like her," Marcus said. "I always say, when you see me, there's a 9-year-old girl sitting on my right shoulder."
