Drug Discovery and Development

  • Home Drug Discovery and Development
  • Drug Discovery
  • Women in Pharma and Biotech
  • Oncology
  • Neurological Disease
  • Infectious Disease
  • Resources
    • Video features
    • Podcast
    • Voices
    • Views
    • Webinars
  • Pharma 50
    • 2025 Pharma 50
    • 2024 Pharma 50
    • 2023 Pharma 50
    • 2022 Pharma 50
    • 2021 Pharma 50
  • Advertise
  • SUBSCRIBE

How a New Class of Drugs Kill Cancer Cells

By Drug Discovery Trends Editor | May 23, 2016

Dr. Stefan Glaser from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute. Source: Walter and Eliza Hall InstituteA team of Walter and Eliza Hall Institute researchers has worked out how a new class of anti-cancer drugs kills cancer cells, a finding that helps explain how cancer cells may become resistant to treatment.

The researchers studied a class of anti-cancer drugs called BET inhibitors, which are considered promising new drugs for the treatment of blood cancers such as leukaemias and lymphomas. BET inhibitors reduce tumour growth by blocking BET proteins, a family of proteins that control whether genes are switched on or off.

Although it has been known that BET inhibitors are effective at halting tumor growth, it has been unclear whether the drugs kill cancer cells outright or merely pause their growth.

Dr Zhen Xu, Professor David Huang, Dr Stefan Glaser and their colleagues have answered this question and in the process have identified potential ways in which cancer cells may develop resistance to BET inhibitors. Their findings have been published in the journal Leukaemia.

When tumors are treated with drugs, some resistant cancer cells can survive and continue to grow, leading to disease relapse.

The experiments performed by postdoctoral researcher Dr Xu revealed that BET inhibitors principally act to kill cancer cells through the process of apoptosis, or programmed cell death. Dr Xu showed that for BET inhibitors to successfully kill lymphoma and myeloid leukemia cells the presence of a protein called BIM, which brings on apoptosis, was critical.

“We found that when apoptosis was impaired, for instance by loss of BIM, the BET inhibitors were no longer effective,” he said. “This suggests that cancer cells that acquire mutations in genes that drive apoptosis will lose sensitivity to BET inhibitors and thus will be able to survive treatment, leading to disease relapse.”

Dr Glaser said understanding how BET inhibitors worked could help researchers develop improved strategies for using these drugs to treat cancer.

“Understanding how the drugs work gives us the opportunity to investigate new treatments, for example by using combination therapies, or altering the dosage and timing of treatment to prevent drug resistance from emerging,” Dr Glaser said.


Filed Under: Drug Discovery

 

Related Articles Read More >

Sai Life Sciences exec: GLP-1 boom has ‘exploded the peptide field’ as firm opens new center
Novartis in the Pharma 50
Swissmedic approves first malaria treatment for infants
Korean team reports all-in-one cancer nanomedicine in pre-clinical studies
Nektar’s Phase 2b atopic dermatitis win triggers 1,746% analyst target surge, but legal tussle with ex-partner Lilly could complicate path forward
“ddd
EXPAND YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND STAY CONNECTED
Get the latest news and trends happening now in the drug discovery and development industry.

MEDTECH 100 INDEX

Medtech 100 logo
Market Summary > Current Price
The MedTech 100 is a financial index calculated using the BIG100 companies covered in Medical Design and Outsourcing.
Drug Discovery and Development
  • MassDevice
  • DeviceTalks
  • Medtech100 Index
  • Medical Design Sourcing
  • Medical Design & Outsourcing
  • Medical Tubing + Extrusion
  • Subscribe to our E-Newsletter
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • R&D World
  • Drug Delivery Business News
  • Pharmaceutical Processing World

Copyright © 2025 WTWH Media LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media
Privacy Policy | Advertising | About Us

Search Drug Discovery & Development

  • Home Drug Discovery and Development
  • Drug Discovery
  • Women in Pharma and Biotech
  • Oncology
  • Neurological Disease
  • Infectious Disease
  • Resources
    • Video features
    • Podcast
    • Voices
    • Views
    • Webinars
  • Pharma 50
    • 2025 Pharma 50
    • 2024 Pharma 50
    • 2023 Pharma 50
    • 2022 Pharma 50
    • 2021 Pharma 50
  • Advertise
  • SUBSCRIBE