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Research May Yield New Therapy for Cancer
Newswise — Cutting-edge research at South Dakota State University may yield a new therapy that targets only cancer cells, leaving healthy cells unharmed.
Pharmacy associate professor Marek Malecki’s “suicide gene therapy” recognizes cancer cells and specifically introduces genetic material to make those cells die by a process called apoptosis — orderly, programmed cell death.
This selectively targeted therapy is a major change from current cancer treatment options of surgery, radiation treatment, or chemotherapy, all of which cause collateral damage to healthy tissues and may fail to kill migrating (metastasizing) cancer cells.
“Current therapies are non-discriminatory. Depending on the dose, they may basically kill cells as they go, and cancer cells are simply more sensitive to some drugs or therapeutics or radiation than healthy cells,” says Malecki, a faculty member in SDSU’s Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences.
Malecki, who holds an M.D. in addition to his Ph.D. in pharmaceutical biotechnology, has thought about the possibility of a new gene therapy for cancer since early in his career. In 2006 he became the first scientist ever to demonstrate in an animal model — in this case, a mouse that had a tumor in its shoulder — that a selectively targeted cancer suicide gene therapy can deliver the synthetic transgene treatment with the aid of genetically engineered antibodies to cancer cells. Importantly, it leaves healthy cells alone.
Malecki is among 15 faculty members in South Dakota’s public university systems who received “seed grants” recently as part of Gov. Mike Rounds’ strategy to build a higher level of competitive research. Eight of the 15 projects funded are the work of SDSU faculty members. . . . (read more)
Go State!
Research May Yield New Therapy for Cancer
Newswise — Cutting-edge research at South Dakota State University may yield a new therapy that targets only cancer cells, leaving healthy cells unharmed.
Pharmacy associate professor Marek Malecki’s “suicide gene therapy” recognizes cancer cells and specifically introduces genetic material to make those cells die by a process called apoptosis — orderly, programmed cell death.
This selectively targeted therapy is a major change from current cancer treatment options of surgery, radiation treatment, or chemotherapy, all of which cause collateral damage to healthy tissues and may fail to kill migrating (metastasizing) cancer cells.
“Current therapies are non-discriminatory. Depending on the dose, they may basically kill cells as they go, and cancer cells are simply more sensitive to some drugs or therapeutics or radiation than healthy cells,” says Malecki, a faculty member in SDSU’s Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences.
Malecki, who holds an M.D. in addition to his Ph.D. in pharmaceutical biotechnology, has thought about the possibility of a new gene therapy for cancer since early in his career. In 2006 he became the first scientist ever to demonstrate in an animal model — in this case, a mouse that had a tumor in its shoulder — that a selectively targeted cancer suicide gene therapy can deliver the synthetic transgene treatment with the aid of genetically engineered antibodies to cancer cells. Importantly, it leaves healthy cells alone.
Malecki is among 15 faculty members in South Dakota’s public university systems who received “seed grants” recently as part of Gov. Mike Rounds’ strategy to build a higher level of competitive research. Eight of the 15 projects funded are the work of SDSU faculty members. . . . (read more)
Go State!