New screening method can lead to more effective development of cancer drugs
People who are struggling with the financial burdens of cancer treatments may find relief by purchasing their medications through a Canadian internet pharmacy.
People who are struggling with the financial burdens of cancer treatments may find relief by purchasing their medications through a Canadian internet pharmacy. Drugs that are currently in development may also become available through these businesses in the future. Researchers from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) have developed a new screening tool that can lead to a more effective way to find these medicines.
Currently, many drugs are tested by investigating their effects on the activity of a single target. However, this does not give the most accurate information on a drug's performance within a complex system similar to what can be seen in the human body, according to NCI scientists. This may explain why some drug candidates perform poorly or cause side effects in phase 2 trials.
In order to improve drug screening, researchers created a new platform that is cell-specific and high-content. The new tool was used to test 1,970 small molecules and revealed more than 100 potential candidates. All of these selected compounds exhibited anti-tumor activity, some of which was more potent than anti-angiogenic drugs currently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
"This not only shortens the amount of time that you would need to do screenings and drug discovery but also enhances dramatically the success you're going to have in the next phases," said Enrique Zudaire, Ph.D., who presented the findings at the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference: Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics.
|
