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The team will be targeting a family of enzymes - types of worker molecules - that appear to be involved in controlling cell growth.
Studies have shown that increased levels of these enzymes, known as sirtuins, are found in tumours from a range of different cancer types.
This suggests that, by finding a way of preventing these enzymes from working, it may be possible to halt the progression of cancer by stopping tumour cells from dividing and growing.
Dr Mike Threadgill, from the University’s Department of Pharmacy & Pharmacology, will be leading the research. He said: “The work funded by Cancer Research UK will build on a long history of successful anti-cancer work at the University of Bath.
“Colleagues already have a range of treatments currently in early stage clinical trials for hormone-dependent breast cancers.
“If successful, we would hope that by the end of this project we might be in a position to begin developing the compounds for clinical trials.”
The research will involve Drs Threadgill, Matthew Lloyd and Andy Thompson from the Department of Pharmacy & Pharmacology and Professor Ravi Acharya from the Department of Biology & Biochemistry.
They will develop a detailed 3D map of the sirtuin enzymes so they can design compounds that will fit into the shape of the enzymes, lock in place and prevent them from working.
Using cultures of cancer cells in the laboratory, they will then be able to test the compounds to see how effective they are at preventing the enzymes from working.
“It is very early days in the development of this technology,” said Dr Threadgill.
“Potentially these sirtuin enzymes offer us a way of preventing the division and growth of tumours in a range of different cancers.
“However, there is a lot of work to be done before we even think about clinical trials.”
Source: By University Of Bath
Posted February 26th, 2008 by seher
