First-Ever RNA Drug Targeting Prostate Cancer from Duke Researchers
PLK1 is a protein that keeps prostate cancer cells alive.
Duke University Medical Center has tested an experimental gene-based drug in mice with prostate cancer and found that it shrank the size of their tumors by 50% without causing side effects.
The RNA-drug, a first of its kind, utilizes a type of genetic material called “targeting RNA” to enter cancer cells and another type, “silencing RNA,” to halt the expression of PLK1.
Other experimental RNA-based drugs were nonspecific, targeting all the cells in the body, not just the cancer cells, thereby resulting in unwanted side effects.
“This study represents the first step in creating an RNA-based drug for cancer. It provides a ‘proof of principle’ that an entirely RNA-based drug can work with minimal side effects, and it shows it is possible to overcome many of the obstacles that have hampered the development of RNA-based drugs,” study lead author James McNamara, a postdoctoral fellow in experimental surgery, said in a prepared statement.
But still, more research is required before the drug can be used in humans. The above findings were published in the August issue of the journal Nature Biotechnology or you can read the full Duke press release.
Source: Forbes
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