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Two Drugs Showing Results Against Breast Cancer

Photo by Jacque Brund

University of Central Florida Associate Professor James Turkson works in his lab with two graduate students. Turkson, a native of the West African nation of Ghana, has developed a pair of drugs that have shown promising results against breast cancer tumors.

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SUNCOAST NEWS STAFF REPORT

Published: November 25, 2008

Updated:

ORLANDO - A University of Central Florida researcher says two compounds he is developing are showing "very promising" results in lab tests targeting breast cancer tumors in mice.

Now James Turkson is looking for assistance in moving forward on further testing on the drugs and exploring whether they will help with another, even more deadly, form of cancer.

The compounds being developed by UCH associate professor Turkson, a native of the West African nation of Ghana, targets STAT3, a protein molecule that regulates cell growth and has been shown to play a role in breast cancer.

Turkson's research has been published in the academic journals Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and ACS Chemical Biology.

The two compounds, dubbed S3I-201 and S3I-M2001, hold promise in part because they efficiently disrupt the STAT3 protein when it is not acting in its normal fashion, according to Turkson.

"We all have the STAT3 protein in our bodies, and under normal circumstances it causes no harm," Turkson said. "But in breast cancer patients, the protein is abnormally active. It never shuts off."

The two anti-cancer compounds work by keeping STAT3 molecules from bonding to one another. This bonding is required for the protein to act in the abnormal, cancer-promoting manner. In addition, blocking STAT3 bonding helps prevent the formation of the dense network of blood vessel cancerous tumors need to feed and survive.

Furthermore, since the abnormally active STAT3 keeps the body's immune system from recognizing the cancer cells as harmful, keeping the protein from binding allows the immune system to attack and destroy the tumor cells.

Turkson, a former research fellow at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, in Tampa, has obtained patents for both compounds and is look for partners to help him continue testing and developing them. In the meantime, he is studying whether a compound similar to S3I-201 and S3I-M2001 will work against pancreatic cancer.

Turkson's work on S3I-201 and S3I-M2001 was conducted in conjunction with researchers at Moffitt and the Beckman Research Institute and Comprehensive Cancer Center of the City of Hope National Medical Center, in Duarte, Cal.

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