New compounds 'put cancer cells into a permanent sleep'
In a groundbreaking move, a team of researchers from Australia has now developed a class of compounds able to block cancer cells' activity on a seemingly permanent basis — without producing harmful side effects.
Experts from several research institutions across Australia have been collaborating to find a drug that would stop cancer cells from dividing without damaging healthy cells' DNA.
This is a common side effect of traditional cancer therapies such as chemotherapy and radiation therapy.
Tim Thomas and Anne Voss, from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Parkville, Australia, alongside many other specialists from other institutions — including the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences — have been looking into the possibility of inhibiting two proteins associated with different types of cancer: KAT6A and KAT6B.
"Early on, we discovered that genetically depleting KAT6A quadrupled the life expectancy in animal models of blood cancers called lymphoma. Armed with the knowledge that KAT6A is an important driver of cancer, we began to look for ways of inhibiting the protein to treat cancer."
-Tim Thomas
The researchers have developed a new class of compounds that has, so far, shown promise in halting the progression of blood and liver cancers and delaying relapse in the laboratory.
