University Researchers Find 7 New Drug Leads For Blood Cancer
A team of scientists from Pondicherry University reported that they have found seven new molecules that could be developed as potent treatments for chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), a type of blood cancer.
Led by Associate Professor R. Baskaran of the department of biochemistry and molecular biology at Pondicherry University, the team identified five of the seven still unnamed molecules that possess greater efficacy than current treatments.
Professor Baskaran commented, “Drugs manufactured using these newly-identified molecules will be more effective than the existing drugs as they arrest the progression of CML by binding the enzymes in the bone marrow that lead to overproduction of WBCs. These drugs will be at least twice more potent than the existing ones.”
Chronic myelogenous leukemia is a form of blood cancer characterized by excessive growth of white blood corpuscles (WBCs) in the bone marrow which results in an imbalance in the body’s total blood cell count. The disease has started to grow resistant in recent years to standard drugs such as ponatinib, dasatinib, nilotinib, and imatinib.
According to the team, the new compounds (codenamed DB07107, DB06977, ST013616, DB04200, ST007180, ST019342 and DB01172) may be produced at less cost than current treatments, making them a cost-effective treatment option for patients. CML is responsible for 12 percent of all cancers in India, or about 300,000 patients. Over 20,000 new cases of CML are diagnosed in the country every year.
The scientists said they intend to pursue a patent for their findings in the near future. Their research will appear online this week in the journal Nature: Scientific Reports.
The discovery of the new molecules coincides with the upcoming 56th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) to be held in San Francisco next month. Among those who will present new reports on blood cancer treatments is Ariad Pharmaceuticals, the maker of Iclusig (ponatinib), an FDA-approved drug for the treatment of chronic myolegenous leukemia, among other cancers.