Promising new cancer drug screening method
Dr. M. Bhatia et al at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada (where ScienceSunday curator Allison Sekuler is) developed a new cancer drug screening method using pluripotent stem cells. They found that thioridazine, an anti-psychotic drug, is effective against cancer stem cells without harming normal cells. The screening method specifically looks for drugs that cause cancer stem cells to differentiate.
The news brief is here: http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/05/psychiatric-drug-may-kill-cancer.html?rss=1
and full article here:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0092867412005715
#ScienceEveryday #CancerResearch
May 25, 2012
Allison Sekuler do you know these guys? Fantastic work.
May 25, 2012
A dopamine receptor antagonist? I found this in the article, “schizophrenic patients receiving DR antagonist medication
at doses deemed effective for schizophrenia were reported
to have a reduced incidence of rectum, colon, and prostate
cancer compared to the general population”. Also, “These findings are further corroborated by the lower cancer incidence rates observed in dopaminergicdeficient Parkinson’s patients (Driver et al., 2007) as Parkinson’s disease itself can be considered to be functionally akin to
disease-induced DR antagonism.”
I also heard that Alzheimers patients have lower incidence of cancer..don’t recall where.
May 26, 2012
Yup. Mick is a good guy – his group also showed how to turn skin cells into blood last year. They are hugely productive and innovative.