WASHINGTON — A Virginia lab could be on the verge of a breakthrough in cancer treatment.
Researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine say they are closing in on a new way to target leukemia cells that could be more effective and less toxic for patients than therapies currently in use.
“In order to get away from that class of drugs, we need to develop drugs that very specifically target the proteins that are causative of the disease,” says John Bushweller, the UVA professor who is leading the research team.
His lab is developing a medication that works by targeting a mutated protein found in leukemia cells that is thought to be a “driver” of the disease.
Bushweller says the drug in development turns that protein off, and as a result, “it really does kill these leukemic cells in a very specific fashion.” And it does so without one of the downsides of tradition leukemia treatments: There is no negative impact on healthy cells.
“That class of targeted agents, if you will, is really the future of cancer therapy,” Bushweller says.
The leukemia-specific medication in the works at UVA has already been proven effective in experiments with mice and human tissue samples. A few bureaucratic hurdles remain before human clinical trials can begin.
UVA Developing Promising New Leukemia Drug from UVA Link on Vimeo.
