Saturday, 29 September 2012

Synthetic drug shows promise in brain cancer


Researchers led by an Indian-origin investigator are testing the suitability of the synthetic cannabinoid drug - dexanabinol - to cure brain cancer. Preliminary tests reveal that it kills cultured cancer cells based on many tumour types, an american report says.

Additional research in Santosh Kesari's neuro-oncology lab in the University of California North park Moores Cancer Center, demonstrated the drug's anti-cancer effects in patient-derived brain cancer cell lines. Kesari may be the principal study-investigator.

It could be given like a weekly intravenous infusion. Recently, researchers at e-Therapeutics, the research sponsor, showed that dexanabinolkills cultured cancer cells based on many tumour types. "In this Phase I study, we're examining the safety of multiple doses of dexanabinol, extent of penetration in to the brain, and suitability for future trials. What we should hope to determine may be the safe and optimal dose of drug within the brain," said Kesari, based on a California statement.

Dexanabinol is really a cannabinoid derivative that causes no psychotropic (altering perception or behaviour) effects. It had been tested previously like a neuro-protective in patients with traumatic injury to the brain. During these trials the drug was discovered to cross the blood-brain barrier.For more news about health care click here...

The blood-brain barrier continues to be defined by The Free Dictionary "as a physiological mechanism that alters the permeability of brain capillaries to ensure that certain drugs are prevented from entering brain tissue, while other substances can enter freely."

Dexanabinol's potential in eliminating cancer was identified via a new approach to drug discovery called network pharmacology, a method to analyze the network of proteins underlying an illness process. Network pharmacology enables scientists to find drugs from among existing compounds, or design new molecules, that act simultaneously on the number of individual proteins to disrupt the cancer-susceptible network.

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