By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
South Korean scientists claim to have developed a gene therapy they say could bring innovations in the treatment of brain cancers.
In a study published by peer-review journal, PLoS One, a research team led by Kyungwon University's Seol Dai-wu say they have uncovered a treatment method that pinpoints and attacks tumor cells, and leaves normal cells undamaged.
The therapy ― a result of combining the tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) protein with the adenovirus ― suppressed the growth of tumors in injected mice with no toxic side effects, Seol said.
Researchers from Korea's Dong-A Pharmaceutical and the University of Pittsburgh also participated in the recent study.
``We have completed the pre-clinical tests jointly with Dong-A Pharmaceutical, and we have applied for approval for clinical trials with the Pharmaceuticals Korea Food and Drug Administration (KFDA),'' Seol said, who expected the trials to begin sometime during the second half of the year.
``Considering that there hasn't been a significantly effective drug to treat brain cancers thus far, we believe that our new gene therapy has enormous commercial potential,'' he said.
TRAIL is a protein, whose functions are associated with the process of cell death. Although TRAIL garners rapt attention from scientists for its potent and cancer-selective killing ability, the concerns over delivery and toxicity have been limiting the progress in therapy development.
Seol's team developed a secretable trimeric TRAIL (stTRAIL) and inserted it into an adenovirus vector, thus creating what they called an adenovirus delivering stTRAIL (Ad-stTRAIL).
When injecting Ad-stTRAIL into mice with established human-like tumors, the growth of tumors was suppressed in the animals without any side effects, Seol said.
The scientists also said that the combination of Ad-stTRAIL and BCNU, a conventional therapy for brain tumors, was also more successful in suppressing the tumor cells.
[출처 : 코리아타임스]
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