The fight against prostate cancer: a new victory?
Scientists at the Ohio State University Medical Center, working under the guidance of Professor Jinshi Chen (Ching-Shih Chen), have developed and tested a new drug OSU-HDAC42 on mice, which prevents the malignancy of precancerous formations of the prostate gland.
OSU-HDAC42 belongs to a new class of histone deacetylase inhibitors that reactivate genes that normally prevent the formation of cancer, but are inactivated during tumor development.
The authors tested the experimental drug on transgenic mice that develop prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia (precancerous epithelial changes) at the 6th week of life, which quickly transform into progressive malignant tumors, which leads to the death of mice at the 24-32 th week of life.
OSU-HDAC42 was added to the feed of 23 animals at the 6th week of life and continued therapy for 18 weeks. As a result, signs of the initial stage of cancer appeared in only one mouse, 10 developed adenomas (benign tumors of the prostate gland), and in 12 the progression of the disease stopped at the stage of intraepithelial neoplasia.
At the same time, 17 of the 23 animals in the control group developed progressive prostate cancer, two showed symptoms of the initial stages of cancer, three retained precancerous conditions, and one had an adenoma.
The main side effect of the drug was testicular degeneration. However, experiments on normal mice have shown that these changes are reversible and after discontinuation of the drug, the testes are restored.
Moreover, after stopping the administration of the drug at the 24th week of life, the scientists observed two mice for an additional 18 weeks. The animals developed adenomas, but they remained alive at the 42nd week of life, which significantly exceeds their allotted time of 32 weeks.
The authors are very encouraged by the results obtained because prostate cancer is one of the most common malignant diseases.
The start of clinical trials of the new drug is scheduled for early next year.
Portal "Eternal youth" www.vechnayamolodost.ru according to the materials of MedicalNewsToday
26.05.2008