Posted on 07/04/2003 7:02:24 PM PDT by FourPeas
Anthrax altered to fight cancer Friday, July 04, 2003 By Kathleen Longcore
Researchers in Grand Rapids say an anthrax-based drug is showing promise in treating the deadly skin cancer melanoma -- and possibly other life-threatening cancers. The researchers at the Van Andel Research Institute are partnering with Wake Forest University Health Sciences in North Carolina to produce a drug called tumor lethal factor (TLF) in preparation for clinical trials. The drug, a component of a nonvirulent anthrax toxin, will be tested on animals first and is several years from reaching cancer patients. But laboratory success in killing melanoma cells is an exciting breakthrough, said Dr. Thomas Gribben, medical director of the Richard J. Lacks Cancer Center at Saint Mary's Mercy Medical Center in Grand Rapids. "When melanoma has spread, it is generally not possible to cure it. An effective treatment for metastatic melanoma would revolutionize our treatment for that cancer," Gribben said. More than 50,000 people nationwide are treated annually for malignant melanoma, and 8,000 die from the disease. Twenty-five percent of melanoma cases occur in patients younger than 40, and it is the leading cause of cancer death in women ages 25 to 30. The incidence rate has increased by 7 percent each year. If the trend continues, experts say melanoma will become the most common cancer in the country by 2025. "It's neat to see something get off the (research) bench and head for trials," said Nicholas Duesbery, 38, a Van Andel scientist formerly with the National Cancer Institute. Others on the Van Andel research team were Han-Mo Koo and Craig Webb, who also worked at the National Cancer Institute, and Dr. George VandeWoude, director of the Grand Rapids institute. They were joined by scientist Steven Leppla of the National Institutes of Health. The anthrax strain being used was developed by the National Institutes of Health for research purposes. Its spore-making ability has been removed, making it nontoxic to people, Duesbery said. In 1997, Duesbery and a team of National Cancer Institute scientists discovered this component of anthrax toxin is a protease -- a protein that cuts up other proteins. They found it would target another protein they call MEK, which is essential for the creation of cells, including tumor cells. "It blocks the action of MEK and renders it blind and exhausted," Duesbery said. That is, it keeps MEK from finding the proteins it needs to make new cells. And even if it finds those cells, it's too tired to do anything with them, he said. When Duesbery came to the Van Andel Research Institute in 1999, he and a new team began testing the anthrax component's ability to stop out-of-control MEK, and found it targets and kills melanoma cells. They are now doing studies to see if it will have the same effect on tumors of the colon, breast and soft tissue. "It looks promising for these other cancers. But the results are too preliminary on those," Duesbery said. Wake Forest was sought out as a collaborator because of the reputation of Dr. Arthur Frankel, an oncologist and professor of cancer biology at the school. Frankel has a track record getting high-quality toxins produced and approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Duesbery said. "He's a bulldog. Now that we've got Art on our team, it should go a lot faster," Duesbery said. Wake Forest will begin to manufacture the altered anthrax toxin this year.
The Grand Rapids Press
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