A researcher at the University of Granada checks progress on a tumor implanted in a mouse during testing of a new cancer drug. Photo by University of Granada
GRANADA, Spain, Oct. 20 (UPI) -- Researchers at the University of Granada have patented a drug for treating cancer stem cells, after it was effective against breast, colon and skin cancers.
Chemotherapy and radiotherapy target cancer cells, however they do not kill cancer stem cells, which contribute to the growth and survival of tumors. With conventional cancer treatment, differentiated cancer cells may be killed but dormant cancer stem cells can remain behind and often cause relapse.
The new drug, called bozepinib, was shown in a study with mice in 2014 to stop tumor growth and prevent metastasis in the three cancer types. New research is being done on the drug's efficacy with lung and pancreatic cancers.
The key to the patent was shortening the time to synthesize and produce large amounts of the drug, however by changing its molecular architecture researchers said in a press release it can now be "synthesized and produced on a grand scale, a fundamental condition for the drug's commercial development."
"The powerful anti-tumour activity of Bozepinib is due to the inhibition of the HER2 signalling pathway, and to the fact that this drug inhibits the invasiveness and the formation of new vessels in the tumour," said Dr. Juan Antonio Marchal, a professor at the University of Granada, in a press release last year.
In the study, published in Oncotarget in 2014, researchers transplanted tumors to mice. After treating the rodents twice a week for 41 days, researchers reported a 50 percent decrease in tumor activity. Although the mice were treated with a high level of the drug, healthy cells showed no adverse effects.
Researchers believe targeting cancer stem cells is a important because those cells are the original cause of the tumor, as well as the cause of relapses and resistance to treatment.
In addition to conducting ADME-Tox, or absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion and toxicity, studies on the drug, they are beginning to study the effects of bozepinib on lung and pancreatic cancers.
