Unprecedented Medical Marvel: Potential Cancer-Curing Pill Eliminates All Solid Tumors
Scientists have developed a cancer drug that destroys all solid cancer tumors without harming healthy cells. The novel molecule targets a protein found in the majority of cancers that aids in tumor growth and multiplication. Prior to this finding, it was believed that the proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) could not be inhibited.
The drug was effective against all 70 types of cancer cells tested in the laboratory, including those derived from breast, prostate, brain, ovarian, cervical, skin, and lung cancer. The tablet is the result of 20 years of research and development by one of the largest cancer hospitals in the United States, the City of Hope Hospital in Los Angeles.
The medication is codenamed AOH1996 in honor of nine-year-old Anna Olivia Healy, who passed away in 2005 from a fatal form of childhood cancer. Dr. Linda Malkas, the chief of the research team, met Anna’s father shortly before she passed away and was inspired to find a cure in her honor.
The scientists who developed the Pfizer Covid vaccine have asserted that cancer will be curable within the next decade, which has sparked great optimism. President Joe Biden’s Cancer Moonshot initiative, relaunched in 2022, aims to halve the cancer mortality rate over the next quarter-century. However, he was criticized last week for claiming that his administration had ended cancer as we know it despite indications that mortality rates are decreasing.
The most recent study, published in the journal Cell Chemical Biology, revealed that the new drug had been tested on over seventy cancer cell lines and several non-cancerous human cells that served as controls. The molecule killed cancer cells selectively by interfering with their normal reproductive cycle, preventing cells with damaged DNA from dividing, and halting the replication of defective DNA. This confluence of factors led to the death of cancer cells without harming healthy cells.
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Groundbreaking Cancer-Killing Drug in Phase 1 Clinical Trial
Now, the results must be replicated in humans. City of Hope is presently testing the drug on humans in a Phase 1 clinical trial. Dr. Linda Malkas, professor in City of Hope’s Department of Molecular Diagnostics and Experimental Therapeutics leads the team.
She described how the molecule selectively inhibits DNA replication and repair in cancer cells while having no effect on healthy cells. Cancer-killing pill is like a snowstorm that shuts down a major airport hub, allowing only planes carrying cancer cells to fly in and out. The molecule can inhibit tumor growth on its own or in conjunction with other cancer treatments without causing toxicity, according to Dr. Malkas, who described the findings as promising so far.
The new therapy, which is the result of 20 years of research and development, targets a cancerous variant of PCNA, a protein that, in its mutated form, is essential for DNA replication and repair in all expanding tumors, thereby aiding in the growth and repair of malignancies. Dr. Long Gu, co-author of the study, stated, “No one has ever targeted PCNA as a therapeutic because it was considered undruggable, PCNA was identified as a possible cause of increased nucleic acid replication errors in cancer cells.
Experiments demonstrated that the investigational pill increased cancer cells’ susceptibility to chemical compounds that cause DNA or chromosome damage, suggesting that AOH1996 could be useful in combination therapies and new chemotherapeutics. As a next stage, the researchers will attempt to better comprehend the mechanism of action in order to improve the ongoing human clinical trial.
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Source: Daily Mail, Independent.ie
