Heart drug may be effective for managing certain cancers, study finds (nitroglycerin)

Queen's University ^ | December 14, 2011

[decimon]

Researchers at Queen’s University have identified a new mechanism that could potentially explain why the body’s immune system sometimes fails to eliminate cancer. The new findings shed light on the possible cause of immune resistance in cancer cells, and indicate that nitroglycerin, a relatively safe and low-cost drug used for more than a century to treat angina, may be effective for managing certain cancers.

“This discovery may lead to new approaches for the treatment of patients with certain forms of cancer,” said Charles Graham, a professor in the Department of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences who lead the Queen’s research team with Robert Siemens of the Department of Urology and Kingston General Hospital. The researchers looked at the role that hypoxia, or low oxygen content in tissues, plays in the ability of some cancer cells to escape detection, and subsequent destruction, by the body’s immune system.

They discovered that hypoxia in a cancer cell is linked to the overproduction of a key enzyme, ADAM10, which makes the cell resistant to attack by immune cells. However, when cells were treated with a nitric oxide mimicking agent such as nitroglycerin, hypoxic conditions were overcome and the cancer cells lost their resistance to an immune system attack. The results indicate that nitroglycerin could potentially be used to boost the body’s natural immune response to cancer.

[decimon]

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[ml/nj]

Yeah. But since it's heart drug, the munificent FDA won't allow it's use for cancer control without 17 more years of testing.

ML/NJ

[big bad easter bunny]

The funny thing about nitroglycerin is they figured out it helped with heart rhythm because guys working in dynamite factories very often died right after retiring, they didn’t realize they had a heart problem and the nitro they were absorbing was keeping them alive. Retirement was the kiss of death.

[huskerjim]

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