Scientists at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center in collaboration with colleagues from Denmark have developed a new cancer drug that travels through the bloodstream unnoticed by normal cells until it is activated by specific tumor proteins, according to Science Translational Medicine.
The key ingredient of the drug is tapsygargin, an active substance obtained from the Thapsia garganica plant growing in the Mediterranean region, which was called a toxic carrot by the ancient Greeks because its consumption caused the death of cattle. Now its lethal potential has been used in the fight against cancer cells.
Research author Dr. Samuel Denmeade compares modified tapsygargin to a molecular pomegranate that conserves healthy tissue.
During the laboratory study, the researchers noted that the drug (which they named G202) reduced the size of prostate cancer grown in mice by about 50 percent. within 30 days. Compared to the commercially available anti-cancer drug docetaxel, G202 reduced seven out of nine human prostate tumors in mice by more than 50 percent. within 21 days, while docetaxel only achieved the same effect in one in eight tumors. G202 also led to a 50% regression in a breast, kidney, and bladder cancer model.
When G202 encounters the prostate specific membrane antigen (PSMA) on the surface of cancer cells, it attacks the cancer cells, the cells adjacent to them and the blood vessels that keep them alive, the researchers explain.
Tapsygargine inhibits ATP-dependent sarcoplasmic / endoplasmic reticulum calcium adenosine triphosphatase (ATP) channels, which means that cancer cells will have difficulty developing drug resistance. They cannot stop producing this protein, because it is necessary to maintain the proper level of calcium ions.
So far, as part of the first stage of clinical trials, the drug has been tested on a group of 29 patients with advanced cancer (PAP).
blanket / agt /