2024-04-05 00:03:03
U.S. research team combines cancer and high blood pressure drugs
Development of a treatment that kills malignant tuberculosis bacteria
《The global medical community hopes for the ‘rediscovery of drugs’
As of 2022, Korea suffered the disgrace of being first in the number of patients with tuberculosis, which is considered a disease of underdeveloped countries, and third in mortality among member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). There are treatments for tuberculosis caused by infection with tuberculosis bacteria, such as antibacterial agents, but the malignant tuberculosis bacteria that are resistant to existing antibacterial agents are a problem.
American scientists have opened the way to overcome the malignant tuberculosis bacillus by recombining drugs that are not commonly used in actual medical settings or that were used for other purposes. As technology develops to identify new effects of previously used drugs, it is expected that cases of ‘drug re-creation’ will become more active.》
● Significantly improved treatment effect for tuberculosis bacteria that do not respond to existing treatments
A research team led by Rakesh Jain, a professor at the Massachusetts General Hospital affiliated with Harvard University Medical School, developed a treatment drug that helps kill malignant tuberculosis bacteria that did not respond to even the most powerful antibacterial agents, and published the report in the international academic journal ‘PNAS (PNAS)’ on the 28th of last month. announced.
The treatment drug developed by the research team was based on ‘bevacizumab’, a drug that inhibits the formation of blood vessels necessary for tumor growth, and ‘Losartan’, a drug that lowers blood pressure by reducing the amount of water in the body of patients with high blood pressure. Combining the two drugs promoted the response of the target that accepts the drug, greatly improving the treatment effect.
The research team explained, “The two drugs approved by the health authorities are safe and inexpensive, so they can significantly improve the treatment results of tuberculosis patients.” It is evaluated that a new approach to a disease that causes millions of deaths every year around the world has been proposed through a drug reinvention strategy based on existing drugs.
● Through drug re-creation strategies for various diseases
Recently, new treatments have been discovered through drug re-creation strategies. A research team at Indiana University School of Medicine in the U.S. published a study in the international academic journal ‘Cell Reports Medicine’ in November last year showing that the drug ‘difluoromethylornithine’, originally developed as a treatment for African sleeping sickness, helps insulin production in patients with type 1 diabetes. announced.
Difluoromethylornithine was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a treatment for African sleeping sickness in the 1990s. In 2020, the treatment effect on neuroblastoma, a cancer that forms in certain nerve tissues, was confirmed.
The research team noted that this drug promotes and protects cellular metabolism when it acts in the body, and used it to protect cells that play an important role in insulin production. Subsequent animal experiments confirmed that this drug not only preserves cells, but even has the potential to restore them.
AstraZeneca’s ‘Iressa’, the most widely used treatment for non-small cell lung cancer, which causes relatively large tumors in the lungs, is also a representative example of drug exploitation. When Gefitinib, an ingredient of Iressa, was first developed, side effects such as epilepsy occurred during clinical trials conducted in Western countries and was discontinued. Afterwards, in clinical trials conducted in Japan, it showed high therapeutic efficacy without side effects and came into the spotlight as a lung cancer treatment for Asians. It has been newly confirmed that it has an effect on the mutated epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene, which occurs only in Asians.
● Research is active in Korea as well
Research is continuing in Korea to create successful cases of drug re-creation. The Bio-Artificial Intelligence Research Group, led by Professor Hyun-sook Lee of the Department of Life Sciences at Seoul National University, is seeking an artificial intelligence (AI) platform that can predict the expected effects when recombining the effects of each drug or using it for a disease different from its original purpose.
Professor Lee said, “70 to 80% of currently approved drugs are virtually dormant,” and added, “Finding new effects of previously unknown drugs is important not only for therapeutic effectiveness but also from economic aspects of time and cost.”
It is explained that while existing new drug development requires more than 10 years from target discovery to candidate material selection, drug re-creation is possible within 3 years from compound identification, acquisition, development and registration. The success rate is high because drugs with proven safety are used. Professor Lee said, “Confirming the effects of dormant drugs has already become one of the main interests of academia at home and abroad,” and predicted, “The competition in drug re-creation research will become more active in the future.”
Donga Science Reporter Park Jeong-yeon [email protected]
-
- great
- 0dog
-
- I’m so sad
- 0dog
-
- I’m angry
- 0dog
-
- I recommend it
- dog
Hot news now
2024-04-05 00:03:03