Researchers at MSU have created a compound that could make cancer medication more effective and possibly even cure the disease.
"This could potentially mean big things," said Jezte Tepe, the chemistry professor who led the cancer research team. "This appears to be the first small, nontoxic molecule that seems to enhance chemotherapy drugs. It makes the clinically used drugs more effective in killing the cancer cells."
A cancer cell exposed to chemotherapy sends out two signals. One is a death signal, and the other signal, called a survival signal, tells the cell to repair itself, Tepe said.
The new compound blocks the survival signal, making the cancer cell more susceptible to medication.
As far as the experiments have shown, there are no side effects in the cell.
The compound creates more effective anti-cancer medication so a patient could take less of the drug with the same result, Tepe said.
"One of the things we hope to do with our drug is make the same chemotherapeutic drug in cells 75 times more effective," Tepe said. "We hope to kill all the cancer cells."
Tepe came to MSU in 2000 with the intent to design and test compounds that would block survival signals in cancer cells.
"Diseases like heart disease, stroke and influenza have gone down since 1950, but cancer hasn't really changed, it's actually slightly increased," Tepe said. "We have million- and billion-dollar drugs on the market to cure cancer, but there isn't the same type of progress you see with the other diseases."
The compound is being tested on mice with human tumors grown on them.
Although the compound seems to make the drug more effective, J. Justin McCormick, a professor in the departments of biochemistry and molecular biology and microbiology and molecular genetics, said they have a long way to go.
"We're dealing with a single type of human cancer, and there are over 200 types," said McCormick, who is helping to run the tests. "In each case we need to examine several different tumor-derived cell lines."
Tepe worked with graduate students Satyamaheshwar Peddibhotla, who discovered the compound, and Vasudha Sharma, who worked with it in cells.
"When I came to Michigan State, I didn't come here to work on cancer," Sharma said. "Close family (members) died of cancer, so it was in the back of my mind.
Sharma said each experiment took at least 48 hours, and she tried to complete three to four experiments in 15 days.
"I know how the chemistry department looks at 4 a.m.," Sharma said. "I am never scared of going the extra mile because it is what I came here for."
