New Drug Developed To Target And Destroy Tumor Cells Successful In Mouse Model Of Pancreatic Cancer

Main Category: Pancreatic Cancer
Article Date: 21 Oct 2012 - 0:00 PDT Current ratings for:
New Drug Developed To Target And Destroy Tumor Cells Successful In Mouse Model Of Pancreatic Cancer

A new drug created at the University of Minnesota may hold the answer to defeating pancreatic cancer, according to results published in the prestigious journal Science Translational Medicine.

The study is based on successful outcomes in a mouse model - results researchers expect to carry over to human patients when the drug potentially begins human trials in 2013.

The drug, Minnelide, is a type of injectable chemotherapy designed to target tumor cells. The drug works by inhibiting a heat shock protein, HSP 70, which has been proven to aid the growth of tumor cells. By stopping HSP 70 from working, Minnelide disperses the cells integral to the tumor's growth and the cancer disintegrates.

The drug is based on patented technology designed in the labs of Ashok Saluja, Ph.D., professor and vice chair of research in the University of Minnesota Medical School's Department of Surgery, Selwyn Vickers, M.D., chairman of the Department of Surgery, and Gunda Georg, Ph.D., director of the Institute for Therapeutics Discovery and Development in the College of Pharmacy. Bruce Blazar, M.D., director of the Center for Translational Medicine, also partnered on this project.

Pancreatic cancer is the most lethal of all cancers. This year alone, more than 44,000 Americans will be diagnosed with the disease and the median survival time following a pancreatic cancer diagnosis is just six months.

"A diagnosis of pancreatic cancer is incredibly grim. There is no good way to treat or cure this particular type of cancer," said Saluja, who holds the Eugene C. and Gail V. Sit Chair in Pancreatic and Gastrointestinal Cancer Research, "and the best options currently available offer just six weeks of added survival. It is far from tackling the real problem which is that pancreatic cancer tumor cells make survival proteins, rendering them increasingly difficult to defeat."

In 2007, Saluja and his collaborators discovered pancreatic cancer cells have too much HSP 70, which protects cells from dying. Because of this excess protein, pancreatic cancer cells are difficult to target with drugs, meaning the logical next step in fighting the cancer was to determine how to inhibit HSP 70 in these tumor cells.

Saluja found that triptolide, a compound derived from plants in China, worked to halt the development of HSP 70 in tumor cells, but because triptolide is not water soluble, it was still difficult to administer to patients. The Institute for Therapeutics Discovery and Development at the University of Minnesota, in collaboration with the Saluja lab, worked to make triptolide water soluble. They named their drug Minnelide as a nod to the compound from which it was derived, triptolide, and its discovery location, the University of Minnesota.

Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release. Click 'references' tab above for source.
Visit our pancreatic cancer section for the latest news on this subject.
The University of Minnesota holds the patent on the modifying factors that create Minnelide from triptolide. It has been licensed to Minneamrita Therapeutics LLC for production.

Funding for this research was provided by NIH grants R01CA124723 and R01 CA170496, as well as the Katherine and Robert Goodale Foundation and the Hirshberg Foundation.

University of Minnesota Academic Health Center

Please use one of the following formats to cite this article in your essay, paper or report:

MLA

n.p. "New Drug Developed To Target And Destroy Tumor Cells Successful In Mouse Model Of Pancreatic Cancer." Medical News Today. MediLexicon, Intl., 21 Oct. 2012. Web.
12 Nov. 2012. APA

Please note: If no author information is provided, the source is cited instead.

'New Drug Developed To Target And Destroy Tumor Cells Successful In Mouse Model Of Pancreatic Cancer'

Please note that we publish your name, but we do not publish your email address. It is only used to let you know when your message is published. We do not use it for any other purpose. Please see our privacy policy for more information.

If you write about specific medications or operations, please do not name health care professionals by name.

All opinions are moderated before being included (to stop spam)

Contact Our News Editors

For any corrections of factual information, or to contact the editors please use our feedback form.

Please send any medical news or health news press releases to:

Note: Any medical information published on this website is not intended as a substitute for informed medical advice and you should not take any action before consulting with a health care professional. For more information, please read our terms and conditions.

View the original article here

Telomere Length In Blood Cells Could Lead To Test For Pancreatic Cancer

Main Category: Pancreatic Cancer
Also Included In: Genetics;  Blood / Hematology
Article Date: 25 Oct 2012 - 0:00 PDT Current ratings for:
Telomere Length In Blood Cells Could Lead To Test For Pancreatic Cancer

A new study shows that a blood marker is linked to pancreatic cancer, according to a study published by scientists at the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center and Mayo Clinic.

First author Dr. Halcyon Skinner, assistant professor of population health sciences at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, says the study is the first time pancreatic cancer risk has been linked to differences in telomeres' length in blood cells.

"This suggests a new avenue to identify those with pancreatic cancer or those at risk of developing the cancer in the future,'' he says.

Skinner's colleagues at Mayo Clinic took blood samples from more than 1,500 people - 499 of them with a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer and 963 of them cancer-free control subjects. Specifically, the scientists were interested in the length of the telomeres - the end caps on chromosomes - found in white blood cells. They found a direct relationship with the risk of pancreatic cancer: the shorter the telomeres, the more likely a person was to have pancreatic cancer.

Telomeres maintain the stability of genes, and are known to shorten with age as cells divide. People of the same chronological age can have vastly different telomere lengths. In other words, some people's cells can by viewed as biologically older than cells from other people the same age.

"We know that people with many factors that are classically unhealthy also tend to have shorter telomeres. Those who have had stressful lives, exposed to chronic inflammation, have poor glucose control or smoked cigarettes tend to have shorter telomeres, and that can set the stage for genetic damage,'' Skinner explains.

Shortened telomeres in the blood have already been associated with other types of cancer, including colon cancer.

"We found the same relationship with pancreatic cancer, and for the vast majority of our participants, there was a direct linear relationship," he says, "the shorter the telomere, the higher the likelihood of pancreatic cancer."

But because shorter telomere length is also associated with the development of other cancers and other diseases of aging, measurement of telomere length alone is not a specific marker for pancreatic cancer.

Dr. Lisa A. Boardman, of Mayo Clinic, who led the overall study, says that future studies need to address if telomere length and other markers of pancreatic cancer should be combined to create a test that could be used clinically.

Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release. Click 'references' tab above for source.
Visit our pancreatic cancer section for the latest news on this subject. Skinner and UW colleagues Ron Gangnon and Kristin Litzelman led the design and data analysis of the study. It is being published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.
Skinner's work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (K07 CA109361).
University of Wisconsin-Madison Please use one of the following formats to cite this article in your essay, paper or report:

MLA

n.p. "Telomere Length In Blood Cells Could Lead To Test For Pancreatic Cancer." Medical News Today. MediLexicon, Intl., 25 Oct. 2012. Web.
12 Nov. 2012. APA

Please note: If no author information is provided, the source is cited instead.

'Telomere Length In Blood Cells Could Lead To Test For Pancreatic Cancer'

Please note that we publish your name, but we do not publish your email address. It is only used to let you know when your message is published. We do not use it for any other purpose. Please see our privacy policy for more information.

If you write about specific medications or operations, please do not name health care professionals by name.

All opinions are moderated before being included (to stop spam)

Contact Our News Editors

For any corrections of factual information, or to contact the editors please use our feedback form.

Please send any medical news or health news press releases to:

Note: Any medical information published on this website is not intended as a substitute for informed medical advice and you should not take any action before consulting with a health care professional. For more information, please read our terms and conditions.

View the original article here