Van Andel Institute researchers step closer to drug for prostate cancer

By: Deborah Johnson Wood

Scientific Investigator Dr. Cindy Miranti and her team at the Van Andel Research Institute have taken a major step forward on their quest to develop a drug to treat prostate cancer.

Prostate cancer cells need an enzyme called PI-3K to survive. The enzyme is also in normal cells. Any drug that might be developed to block the enzyme’s activity in cancer cells will also block its activity in normal cells, and that could mean serious side effects for the patient. But Miranti says her research proves that normal cells don’t need the enzyme to survive.

"We discovered that when the drug is administered to normal cells, it doesn't affect the normal cells," Miranti says. "That's an affirmation that this approach (drug treatment) will likely work."

And Miranti is taking the research a step further. Tumor cells often mutate and become resistant to drug therapies. Miranti says the mutant cells may activate another enzyme that continues to fuel the cancer cells.

"We want to find out what that other enzyme is, so we can develop a series of drugs," Miranti says. "This is the first step in that process."

Until now, the team has tested the drug on human tissue in the laboratory. Next steps are to test it in animals and look for other enzymes so researchers can develop a second line of defense. After that, the drug can be tested in human cancer patients, and that won’t happen for quite a while. Miranti estimates it will take at least five years to get the drug to market.

Source: Cindy Miranti, Van Andel Research Institute;

Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at [email protected].