A antibiotic developed in the 1950s and largely supplanted by newer drugs effectively targets women cancer cells with a common genetic defect and the eye, as shown by laboratory research conducted by scientists from the
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
published in the magazine Nature Cancer.
Experts have discovered that, in laboratory cell lines and tumor models, the novobiocina it selectively kills tumor cells with abnormal BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes, which help repair damaged DNA. These BRCA mutations are found in a significant percentage of breast, ovarian, prostate, and pancreatic cancers.
The doctor Alan D’Andrea is director of the Susan F. Smith Center for Female Cancers and the Dana-Farber DNA Damage and Repair Center and, along with Dr. Raphael Ceccaldi, from the Curie Institute in Paris, are the co-authors of this new study.
D’Andrea and her team, in a study published in 2015, found that tumors with malfunctioning BRCA1 and -2 genes are overly dependent for their growth and survival on an enzyme known as POLQ.
Later, they started this new study, for which they examined thousands of molecules in BRCA-deficient tumors to see if any had an effect on tumor growth. Some of these molecules were new, and some were used in previously approved drugs.
Among the multitude of molecules and drugs tested, one stood out for its ability to kill tumor cells and leave normal cells unscathed: novobiocin.
The drug was used in the 1990s for a clinical trial in cancer patients
When researchers searched the medical literature on novobiocin, they came across a surprise: it was developed and used as an antibiotic and even se had tried in the early 90’s in a clinical trial for patients with difficult-to-treat cancers. The results of this clinical trial concluded that the majority of the patients did not benefit from the drug and in a small number the cancer remitted or stabilized.
“At that time, no one knew what the goal of the drug was,” explains D’Andrea, who assures that they now know it, so they have “an indication of which patients can benefit from it.”
Thus, the results of this study have prompted researchers to open a new clinical trial of this drug, novobiocin, for patients whose tumors present with this abnormality.
Dr. D’Andrea assures that as it is “a safe oral drug and approved for the treatment of another disease, novobiocin offers several advantages as a study agent ”.
Therefore, experts say that, now, they are wanting to try novobiocin “Alone and in combination with other agents, in patients whose tumors present molecular characteristics that indicate a probable response to the drug.”
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