Question: Have you found out any new drugs?

Jessica Chu answered on 13 Jun 2011:

Hi Ryan1234,

Personally, I haven’t but it would be my dream to find something to treat cancer so less people suffer from it!!

My lab friends are working on some drugs that can target the telomerase (an enzyme) found to be over-expressed in cancer cells compared to normal cells. If you want more information let me know!

Otherwise here is a list of some already discovered drugs to treat cancer!

Unfortunately- I cannot copy and past pictures on here so I will give you the links to check out these structures:

1. Taxol, a natural chemical found in the Pacific Yew tree by Dr. Wani and Dr. Wall. It is used to treat breast, lung and ovarian cancers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paclitaxel

2. Temozolomide developed by Professor Malcolm Stevens and his group at Aston University. This is for patients suffering from Gliomas (cancer from spine or brain cells), Melanomas (Skin cancer) and Brain metastases (Cancer formed from another part of the body that has moved to the brain):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temozolomide

3. Flavopiridol is currently being developed by Aventis Oncology and The National Cancer Institute (US) and it is used to treat Chronic Lymphocytic Leukeamia (cancer of the blood)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flavopiridol

I think Flavopiridol is the first one chemists/biologists have made from scratch that will interfere with the cell cycle proteins for cancer patients!

4. Herceptin
Herceptin is an antibody developed by Genentech.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trastuzumab

I will explain this one a little more because I find it hard to understand too but it is so interesting!! This treatment falls into the category of biologics (using biological stuff to treat diseases for example vaccination).

Antibodies is normally produced by white blood cells when a foreign harmful substance (antigen) is inside the body; antibodies will bind to the antigen so it slows down the movement of the antigen and to allow other white blood cells to eat it up!
Her2 is a receptor present on the cell surface to receive growth signals so cancer cells can grow non-stop. Her2 receptors are over-expressed in ~25% of breast cancer patients for example normal cells have 20,000 Her2 receptors on the cell surface, cancer cells can have up to 2,000,000 Her2 receptors instead.
This herceptin antibody is designed specifically to recognise this Her2 receptor and bind to it so it will be attacked by the immune system, which involves the white blood cells.

Hope these examples help! Let me know if you want to know anything else

Jess