Target Clock Protein! This breakthrough led to the development of glioblastoma drugs

Glioblastoma, the most common malignant brain tumor in adults, is an aggressive disease that can only survive for an average of 15 months
once diagnosed.

But recent research by a team led by the USC Keck School of Medicine suggests that after current standard treatments, circadian clock proteins that help coordinate changes in body function throughout the day may play a key role
in the growth and proliferation of glioblastoma.

Dr.

Kai and Synchronicity Pharma have formed a collaborative organization that unites experts and scholars in the fields of glioblastoma, biological clock biology and biochemistry
.

"We are now beginning to move along the path of clinical drug development — turning this from a scientific story into a translational story," said Kay, the study's senior author, who is also co-director of
the Rosalie and Harold Rae Brown Cancer Drug Development Center at the University of Southern California Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Neutralizes rogue cells

The first symptoms of glioblastoma include blurred vision, headache, nausea, epilepsy, and personality changes
.

"In the vast majority of patients, cancer will come
back.

The researchers believe that the cancer recurs because a small number of "cancer stem cells"
are left behind after surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

With this knowledge, Kai and his collaborators created and tested thousands of molecules capable of binding to and potentially neutralizing irregular circadian clock proteins
within cancer stem cells.

The next step is to test the effectiveness
of SHP656 on actual cancer cells.

"We found that this molecule works differently
on healthy brain cells and tumor cells," Kay said.

Expand the potential of treatment

Synchronous pharmaceutical companies have now begun Phase I clinical trials
of this new molecule.

SHP656 and other molecules that target clock proteins are expected to treat other types of cancer
in addition to their potential to treat glioblastoma.

"This study shows that when you bring together the right types of collaboration, academic researchers can become leaders in cancer drug discovery
," he said.

essay

CRY2 isoform selectivity of a circadian clock modulator with antiglioblastoma efficacy