Anti-Tumor Drug Accepted for Evaluation

Sept. 2, 1999

MEDIA CONTACT: Jeff Olson, University Communications and Marketing, (208) 885-8934 or [email protected]

STORY CONTACT: Nick Natale, Department of Chemistry, (208) 885-6778 or [email protected]

UI DEVELOPED ANTI-TUMOR DRUG ACCEPTED FOR EVALUATION BY THE NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE

The National Cancer Institute has accepted an anti-tumor drug candidate developed at the University of Idaho for biological evaluation as a potential treatment for cancer. A research team led by UI chemistry Professor Nick Natale produced the drug, known as NSC D 694332. It's believed to be the first cancer-related drug developed by a UI researcher.

"The anti-tumor drug candidate represents a new class of compounds," said Natale. "We think this drug, or one derived from it, has a good chance of being successful, but we realize it's not going to happen overnight."

Natale began working on the anti-tumor drug in 1986 and later received grant money from the American Chemical Society. Using commercially available chemicals, the research team synthesized the new compound through a process that required 11 different chemical reactions, two of which were invented in Natale's laboratories in Renfrew Hall on the Moscow campus.

"One of the critical steps, which connects two halves of a molecule, was called a synthetic breakthrough by reviewers at the journal, "Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters," who evaluated the work for publication," said Natale.

The research team followed what it called "rational drug design." The team developed a plan to create NSC D 694332 so that it binds more rigidly to tumor cells and stabilizes the cell to keep it from rapidly dividing.

In the first test phase at the National Cancer Institute, NSC D 694332 inhibited 12 different cancer cells, including six lines of leukemia, three cell lines of melanoma, two of breast cancer and one cell line of renal cancer.

The National Cancer Institute has screened almost 700,000 compounds since the war on cancer began in 1971. Of those, only 2.5 percent are promising enough to move on to the biological evaluation phase of the drug screening process.

NSC D 694332 is one of the drug candidates to advance.

"In addition, it lies outside the category of adequately studied classes of antitumor agents," wrote Dr. V.L. Narayanana of NCI. "We will be pleased to screen your newer analogs as they arise."

The second round of biological evaluation involves testing on living organisms. It has required the research team members, postdoctoral research associate Peiwen Zhou, graduate students Stanislav Bakunov and Xiaochun Han and undergraduate researcher Kevin Hobdey, to produce amounts of the anti-tumor drug 10 times greater than required for the first round of testing.

The second round of testing will take up to eight months to complete, and if successful, NSC D 694332 will face further testing.

The research team is excited about the possibilites, not only for NSC D 694332, but for the new class of compounds the drug represents. Further refinements to the drug made in the lab also will be considered by NCI.

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