New Drug Boosts Potency of Chemotherapy

Cancer researchers have found that a recently discovered nontoxic imidazoline compound, SP-4-84, significantly increases the potency of anticancer drugs such as cisplatin and camptothecin.

Investigators at Michigan State University (East Lansing, USA) worked with normal and cancer cells growing in tissue culture. They reported in the December 2004 issue of Chemistry & Biology that the novel imidazoline compound SP-4-84 increased the sensitivity of the cancer cells to the chemotherapeutic drug camptothecin by about 75% without having a toxic effect on normal cells.

The mode of activity of SP-4-84 is through inhibition of NF-kappa-B-mediated gene transcription, which is known to sensitize tumor cells to chemotherapeutic agents and enhance their efficacy.

Senior author Dr. Jetze Tepe, assistant professor of chemistry at Michigan State University said, "Essentially it sensitizes only cancer cells to chemotherapeutics by blocking the cancer cell's ability to survive the damage that was caused by the chemotherapeutic drugs. This may potentially mean that one could use less than one-tenth of the current drug dosage and still get the same therapeutic results, but fewer side effects, or use the same drug dosage which is now much more effective in its treatment.”




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