| Many scientific advances start with serendipity. | | | | in normal cells...This makes an exciting treatment |
| Scientists at Wake Forest University have made a | | | | target because theoretically you don't have to worry |
| surprising discovery - an obesity drug can kill cancer | | | | about harming nearby healthy tissue." |
| cells. The researchers are now using the findings to | | | | While oralist has killed cancer cells in the lab, it can't |
| develop more effective cancer drugs. | | | | be used as a cancer treatment, because in humans, it |
| This study, published in the online version of Nature | | | | is designed to act only in the digestive tract. |
| Structural and Molecular Biology is the first to report | | | | According to W. Todd Lowther, Ph.D., another |
| that the drug oralist,XenicalÂ(R) or | | | | researcher on the project , the goal is to "develop an |
| AlliÂ(R) interacts and binds with a protein | | | | orlistat-like drug that can get into the bloodstream |
| found in tumor cells causing cell death. The project | | | | and go to the site of a tumor." |
| started when Steven Kridel, Ph.D., an assistant | | | | They are working with a dozen possibilities to find |
| professor in the Department of Cancer Biology, | | | | the one that works best. The drug will be tested on |
| analyzed prostate cancer cells to see which enzymes | | | | animals, and later cancer patients. |
| were expressed at high levels in the hope of | | | | While what they are working on is a cancer |
| developing treatments that would inhibit those | | | | treatment, as fatty acid synthase is also found in fat |
| enzymes and stop tumor growth. | | | | cells, it's possible that, "You might have the same |
| What they found according to Kridel is that, "a | | | | drug for treating a cancer patient as an obese |
| protein known as fatty acid synthase is expressed at | | | | patient," said Lowther. |
| high levels in prostate tumor cells, and is fairly absent | | | | |