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Joined: 01 Jun 2006
Posts: 23
Location: Melbourne Australia
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 Posted: Wed Jul 05, 2006 2:59 am Post subject: super drug a gene killer |
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This is an excerpt from the Melbourne Herald Sun newspaper dated 4/7/2006.
AUSTRALIAN scientists have developed an experimental super drug that could be used to fight illnesses from diabetes to heart disease to cancer.
Researchers at the University of NSW yesterday unveiled their "one size fits all" therapy, which has already been shown to be effective against skin cancers.
The drug, Dz13, also could be used to treat blindness caused by age-related macular degeneration -- the leading cause of vision loss and blindness -- as well as heart attack victims and people suffering inflammation.
The therapy, outlined in the journal Nature Biotechnology, acts on a disease-causing gene called c-Jun, a master regulator found in diseased blood vessels, eyes, lungs, joints and in the gut.
Molecular biologist Prof Levon Khachigian, who led the study, said the drug was a programmed "molecular assassin" -- a DNA molecule with a cleaver attached -- that searches out the gene and cuts it in half.
"Our experimental drug Dz13 is like a secret agent that finds its target, c-Jun, within the cell and destroys it," he said.
Representing a new generation of gene therapy, the treatment is the first calculated to kill off the so-called godfather gene.
As a result, the legion of other genes usually controlled by the master regulator are never "turned on", stopping the disease in its tracks.
The drug worked on cancerous tumours and skin cancer in pre-clinical trials by essentially choking off the blood supply.
Animal trials had shown "exciting results" but Prof Khachigian warned it was too soon to know how effective it was.
"We're talking about a therapy, but whether or not it's a cure remains to be seen," he said.
The drug will face its next hurdle early next year when tests begin on 10 adults with non-melanoma skin cancers.
Prof Bernard Stewart, head of the cancer control program at South Eastern Sydney and Illawarra Health Service, said the development was a breakthrough.
"Now we've gone from something on paper that might work to something in biology that does work," he said.
He said a successful skin cancer trial would have implications for cancer treatment across the board, possibly offering a safer alternative to the "chemical warfare" of chemotherapy.
"It's extremely exciting," he said.
"Conventional chemotherapy works, but at a very grim cost in respect of quality of life." |
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