Nature: discovery of a new anticancer drug for key mutations of tumor

February 13, 2020 / biourn / -- a research team from several institutions in the United States and Australia found that a drug optimized for a protein produced due to genome mutation can reduce some tumors in mice and humans In their paper, published in nature, the team described the drug and its effect on the subjects As the researchers point out, the Kirsten rat sarcoma (KRAS) virus oncogene homolog is the most common mutation in human tumorigenesis - for unknown reasons, it gets stuck in the "on" position, causing cells to produce proteins, leading to tumorigenesis For decades, medical scientists have understood the problems it may cause, but they are unable to stop it In this new study, the researchers optimized a drug, which has a good effect in this respect Photo source: https://cn.bing.com when researchers found a groove in the KRAS protein, they were able to optimize a drug to target the protein, so that they could create a drug to bind to the KRAS protein and prevent it from participating in tumor formation The drug they developed is AMG 510 The researchers first tested it on mice and found that it was very effective in reducing tumor growth and, in some cases, even completely eradicating tumors Encouraged by the results, the researchers gave the drug to four lung cancer patients After six weeks, they reported that two of the patients' tumors had shrunk, one by 34% and the other by 67% There was no change in tumor size in the other two patients The researchers reported that they also found that AMG 510 not only reduced their tumor size, but also affected their immune system In some cases, they found, even if they stopped taking drugs, their bodies would no longer grow tumors - their immune systems were strengthened, allowing them to resist the growth of tumors themselves In other cases, administration of AMG 510 to mice appeared to make other drugs more effective in inhibiting tumor growth Reference: Jude Canon et al The clinical KRAS (G12C) investor AMG 510 drives anti tumour immunity, nature (2019) Doi: 10.1038/s41586-019-1694-1