Repurposed drug could be delivered straight to gut cells-article explains how

A drug that helps prevent colon cancer and other diseases has been developed at the Sloan Kettering Institute (SKI) Cancer Center at New York University (NYU) through the first phase human clinical trial (humans received the treatment). The research was conducted by the lab of Kristin Thomas-Yang PhD Head of the Human Compound Discovery Lab at SKI as part of the BRAIN Initiative letterhead. The Human Compound Discovery Lab known for its trial-stage work conducted this research not for profit but for charity in partnership with Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School Dr. Mehdi Hasan Professor of Pharmacology at Rutgers-New Brunswick and one of the studys authors explained that Boston Childrens Hospital (BC-H) was chosen as the study site. BC-H is one of the largest and most sophisticated research sites in New York State and the largest institution in the New York City area.

This groundbreaking research involved the participation of NYU Associate Professor of Human Pharmacology and Physiology PhD Yuxiao Xu PhD and NYU Professor of Cell Developmental Biology Elizabeth A. Rubin PhD. Amazing results have helped Barnes-Collins University Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and Jackson Laboratories for Cancer Research (KIHR) rev up the technology and speed of cancer treatment research in patients.

According to Dr. Thomas-Yang research has included new injections pre-treatments and targeted therapies including combinations of new delivery systems improved scalability and the use of an imaging system that enables the drugs to penetrate inside the body and study the cells-amid with markers for cancer.

However prior to this breakthrough there had never been a drug available to treat small bowel cancer (SBC) as well as colorectal ovarian breast bladder and stomach cancers. The group defined a drug that would not only reach the colon–most cancers affect the digestive tract but also the small intestine- that is the cancers of the gut and small intestine involved in a typical healthy balance of your gut and your blood. The program of such drugs now is called polymerase chain reaction (PCR) inhibitors. The goal is to extend the lives of patients by halting cancer tumor growth.

In NYUs human clinical trial patients were treated with pembrolizumab-a monoclonal antibody also known as IM1396; a nanoparticle delivery system. Cell applications are an emerging field in which research and development is making progress Dr. Thomas-Yang explained. This trial will recreate clinical trials in the clinic that are virtually impossible to replicate or afford. Thus the Department of Human Pharmacology and Physiology at NYU contributes its postdoctoral fellowship to this exciting program.

The Phase III clinical trial will produce the drugs throughout the course of approximately two years and test whether the patients on the pembrolizumab arms survived over 24 months. If the patients survived for those 24 months the preliminary data will be sought within a similar time frame for the Pembrolizumab arms that are able to heal tumors Dr. Thomas-Yang explained. Otherwise no data will be obtained for the trial. If the data indicates neither the expected benefit nor a harm in doing so HER-2 positive patients will be asked to be switched from the pembrolizumab arms.

Therapeutically speaking the agents have been developed very carefully to detect some of the human pathogens but to the same degree as our immune system said Dr. Thomas-Yang. So to speak theyre finding out what we should be immunized against. Weve seen in other cell models how this signalling pathway upends immune function and human disease.