Scientists at a leading US hospital have developed a “cancer killer pill” that kills solid tumors through “targeted chemotherapy”. Scientists explained that the chemotherapy drug does not affect healthy cells. The drug, called AOH1996, is named after a boy named Anna Olivia Healy, born in 1996, who died at just nine years old after being diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a rare childhood cancer.Anna’s death may have ignited the spark that would save millions. Since her death, Anna’s family has been donating money to Professor Linda Malkas, who has spent 20 years developing AOH1996 at the City of Hope hospital. And now, we are witnessing promising developments.
Breakthrough in cancer treatment
Professor Linda Malkas and her team spent two decades developing the drug that targets a protein in all cancers, including the cancer that killed Anna. The cancerous variant of this protein, called proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), is targeted. In its mutated form, PCNA encourages tumors to grow by aiding in DNA replication and repair of cancerous cells.
Prof Malkas and his team at City of Hope, California, one of the largest cancer research and treatment organizations in the United States, said their targeted chemotherapy had “destroyed” all solid tumors in preclinical studies. The protein developed by the research team has been likened to “a blizzard that shuts down a major airline hub and halts all flights on planes carrying only cancer cells.”
Prevents more than 70 cancers
In the study published in the peer-reviewed journal Cell Chemical Biology, AOH1996 was tested on more than 70 cell lines and found that it selectively killed cancer cells by disrupting the normal cell reproductive cycle, but did not interrupt the reproductive cycle of healthy stem cells. Preclinical studies show that the drug is effective in treating cells derived from breast, prostate, brain, ovarian, cervical, skin and lung cancers.
However, the drug still needs to pass rigorous safety and efficacy testing and large-scale clinical trials before it can be used widely. But the first patient took the potential anti-cancer pill in October, and the phase one clinical trial is still ongoing and is expected to take at least two years. Researchers are also continuing to examine the mechanisms by which the drug works in animal studies.
Prof Malkas said in a statement: “PCNA is like a large airline terminal hub with multiple airplane gates. The data show that PCNA changes uniquely in cancer cells, and this fact has allowed us to design a drug that targets only the PCNA form in cancer cells.” .
Long Gu, lead author of the study, said: “No one targeted PCNA as a therapeutic drug because PCNA was seen as ‘incurable’, but it is clear that City of Hope has succeeded in developing an investigational drug for a challenging protein target.” The investigational chemotherapeutic is currently in Phase 1 clinical trial in humans at the City of Hope, with the goal of further strengthening the results to Phase 2 clinical trials in the future.
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