US researchers are working on “cancer-killing” pill
by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – America’s largest cancer research organization, City of Hope, is conducting preclinical trials on a new drug that appears able to “annihilate” solid cancerous tumors while leaving surrounding healthy cells alone, Sky News reports.
City of Hope has been working on the “cancer-killing pill” known as AOH1996 for 20 years, Sky News said. The drug has so far successfully treated cells derived from breast, prostate, brain, ovarian, cervical, skin and lung cancers.
The drug appears to work by targeting a cancerous variant of a protein called proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA). In its mutated form, PCNA is “critical” in the replication of DNA, and the repair of all “expanding tumors.”
Professor Linda Malkas, who has been developing the drug explained in a statement: “Data suggests PCNA is uniquely altered in cancer cells, and this fact allowed us to design a drug that targeted only the form of PCNA in cancer cells. Our cancer-killing pill is like a snowstorm that closes a key airline hub, shutting down all flights in and out only in planes carrying cancer cells.”
The research into AOH1996 has thus far only found that it halts tumor growth in cell and animal models: it is hoped that the first phase of the clinical trial in humans that is now underway will show equally encouraging results..
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