Researchers at the Comprehensive Cancer Center have developed a new drug called AT-406 with potential to treat multiple types of cancer.
A study, published last week in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, showed that AT-406 effectively targets proteins that block normal cell death from occurring. Blocking these proteins caused tumor cells to die, while not harming normal cells. The researchers believe the drug could potentially be used alone or in combination with other treatments.
The normal cell death process, called apoptosis, is what keeps normal cells in check. When apoptosis is disrupted, cells reproduce uncontrollably, which is a hallmark of human cancer.
“Removing key apoptosis blockades in tumor cells is a completely new cancer therapeutic approach and could have benefit for the treatment of many types of human tumors,” says study author Shaomeng Wang, Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis Professor in Medicine and director of the Cancer Drug Discovery Program at the Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Wang’s laboratory has been pursuing new cancer treatments aimed at this cell death pathway since 2003. His team designed and made AT-406 and tested it in the laboratory in 2006.
Patent applications covering the drug are exclusively licensed to Ascenta Therapeutics, a privately-held, clinical stage biopharmaceutical company co-founded by Wang. After extensive testing, Ascenta began the first clinical trial in 2010 testing AT-406 for cancer treatment. This trial, which is being tested in all solid tumors, is offered at the Comprehensive Cancer Center, Duke University and the Mayo Clinic. Ascenta also recently opened a second trial of AT-406 in high-risk acute myeloid leukemia at the Comprehensive Cancer Center. Several more clinical trials are planned.
