Researchers might have found a better way of treating prostate cancer.
According to the team at the University of Georgia, treatments that target the protein, PAK-1, have the potential to be very successful at combating prostate cancer. PAK-1 activity has been linked to the development of cancer cells that are particularly invasive.
"PAK-1 is kind of like an on/off switch," the study co-author Somanath Shenoy, an associate professor in UGA's College of Pharmacy, said. "When it turns on, it makes cancerous cells turn into metastatic cells that spread throughout the body."
Shenoy, who worked with Brian Cummings, another associate professor at the university's College of Pharmacy, was able to find a way to inhibit PAK-1 activity in mice models by using a small molecule called IPA-3. The researchers had injected IPA-3 molecules intravenously after surrounding the molecules with liposome. The liposome acted as a protective barrier and prevented the body from metabolizing the IPA-3 molecules too quickly.
"When we first began these experiments, we injected IPA-3 directly into the bloodstream, but it was absorbed so quickly that we had to administer the treatment seven days a week for it to be effective," Shenoy said. "But the liposome that Dr. Cummings created makes the IPA-3 much more stable, and it reduced the treatment regimen to only twice a week."
The researchers found that the IPA-3 molecules were effective in slowing down prostate cancer growth. The molecules also triggered the cancerous cells to go through apoptosis, which is a process characterized by programmed cell death.
Shenoy noted that even though the study's findings are very promising, they do not know how these molecules would affect human patients, and whether or not this treatment is safe.
"The results of our experiments are promising, and we hope to move toward clinical trials soon but we must figure out what side effects this treatment may have before we can think about using it in humans," Shenoy said.
Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer, after non-melanoma skin cancer, in men living in the U.S. In 2012, the last time that data was compiled, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that 177,489 American men were diagnosed with prostate cancer and 27,244 had died.
The study's findings were published in the journal, Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine.
