Novel Drugs Selectively Knock Off Cancer

Tumors can be reduced with highly selective novel inhibitors by specifically targeting their mitochondria.

Treating tumors with novel first-in-class inhibitors stopped cancer cells from proliferating and reduced cancer cell growth in mice, without significantly affecting healthy cells, as per research at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden published in the ////journal Nature.

"We are excited to have shown that this novel principle for cancer treatment works in animal models and hopefully the inhibitors can now be developed further for anti-cancer treatment in humans," says Nils-Göran Larsson, professor at the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics at Karolinska Institutet, who led the study.

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‘Tumors can be reduced with highly selective novel inhibitors. This therapy can prevent cancer cell proliferation by specifically targeting their mitochondria and leaving healthy cells unaffected.’

Mitochondria are a type of cell organelles that serve as reserve for energy extraction from the food for various cellular functions. The main source of energy for cancer cells to survive and metastasize arrives from mitochondria. This follows the formation of new mitochondria.

The novel inhibitors :

Several therapeutic attempts have targeted direct inhibition of mitochondrial function which often results in severe side effects to normal tissues. The novel strategy thereby designed highly selective inhibitors that target the mitochondria's genetic material – mtDNA. It plays a vital role in the formation of new mitochondria.

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"Previous findings from our research group have shown that rapidly dividing cells, such as cancer cells, are crucially dependent on mtDNA to form new functional mitochondria. Consequently, treatment with our inhibitors specifically affects proliferation of tumor cells, whereas healthy cells in tissues such as skeletal muscle, liver or heart remain unaffected for a surprisingly long time", says, Nils-Göran Larsson.

The novel inhibitors work by depleting the complete nutrient and energy reserve of the cancer cells. This, in turn, leads to reduced tumor cell growth and ultimately cell death.

Thus, the study promises efficient therapeutics for cancer. However further researches are required to incorporate these results into humans.

Source-Medindia