Apoptosis-Inducing Compound for the Treatment of Cancer

FEATURES
Aside from surgery and radiation therapy, traditional chemotherapeutic treatment of cancer is commonly used even though it has detrimental side effects. Current chemotherapeutics are effective to treat cancer because they induce maturation (i.e. slowing growth) of the cells or they kill the cells outright (necrosis) because the chemical(s) used are toxic. This is disadvantageous because these chemicals also adversely affect normal cells. To solve this problem, Indiana University researchers have discovered that the administration of benzamide riboside in effective amounts to targeted cancer cells results in a breakdown of the targeted cancer cells without a corresponding breakdown of normal cells. This method of treatment to cause cancer cells to kill themselves (i.e. to undergo programmed cell death, also known as apoptosis) instead of overall necrosis will reduce the adverse side-effects of chemotherapy, as benzamide riboside affects normal cells to a significantly lesser degree than cancer cells. Recently, Indiana University researchers have also developed a method to selectively induce apoptosis in cancer cells (see related technology, Tech ID# 0232).

BENEFITS
* It is active at low doses (5 to 25 micromoles per one million cancer cells)
* It has a low molecular weight
* It is water-soluble
* It is useful for combination therapy
* It is an effective apoptotic-inducing agent

Fig 1: Mechanism of action of benzamide riboside.

Patents:
US 5,902,792

Inventor(s): Hiremagalur N. Jayaram, Ph.D.

Type of Offer: Licensing



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