Cancer hope: Existing drugs may help our natural defences battle disease

[Chip (OP)]

source: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/cancer-hope-existing-drugs-may-help-our-natural-defences-battle-disease/story-fnpp4dl6-1227573576200

Cancer hope: Existing drugs may help our natural defences battle disease


Existing drugs could be equipped to step up in the cancer fight.

A RANGE of drugs already on the market could help repair the human body’s natural ­cancer-fighting system, thanks to a breakthrough by Melbourne researchers.

Scientists from the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre are trialling new ways of protecting a protein crucial in stopping cancerous growth.

And researchers hope present medications could also help fast-track the global effort to defend the p53 protein, now recognised as the “most ­important tumour suppressor”.

Prof Ygal Haupt, from Peter MacCallum’s tumour suppression laboratory, said damage to the p53 protein was a factor in “the great majority or almost all” cancers.

“So if we can protect it from destruction, that is sufficient to eliminate cancer cells, and this is now in clinical trials in various stages,” he said.


Prof Haupt and Prof Tony Burgess, from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, are hosting the Weizmann Australia Making Connections Symposium at Melbourne Museum this week.

The conference brings ­together some of the world’s leading cancer researchers — with p53 a major topic of ­discussion.

Prof Haupt will present new research suggesting some drugs could protect the p53 gene from some of its natural “destructors”.

He and Prof Moshe Oren, of the Weizmann Institute, ­discovered how p53 was ­destroyed in the 1990s.

“Some of the targets we’ve identified already have drugs on the market,” he said.

“This means we could ­potentially repurpose a drug that wasn’t previously considered as a drug for targeting p53 ... that opens up a very imp­ortant therapeutic window.”

Prof Haupt said it was too early to publicly announce which drugs could be effective, because the research was still in its early stages.

The p53 protein protects the human body by sensing damage to cells — and then either repairing or destroying them.

“But when p53 becomes mutated, two things happen,” Prof Haupt said. “One is the normal function is gone ... and two, the p53 ­mutant gains cancer-promoting functions.”

[Riddick">Riddick]

Know what my problem with this or anything like it is? The fucking politics and bureaucracy behind this type of shit. Say this guy find how to protect the p52 and it will earn him 3 billion dollars... Then the dude that will make 6 billion dollars off of cancer offers him 4 and wins. And if that doesn't entice him, then the guy will throw in the " ill ruin your life " package in that bitch.