Researchers have devised a new protocol to screen for and rank the efficacy of compounds specifically targeting telomeres and telomerase. This new approach, which facilitates the screening of thousands of chemical compounds for their ability to inactivate replication of telomeric ends in cancer cells, was recently heralded in Cancer Research.
The team from the University of Edinburgh, the Institute Curie in Paris, the National Cancer Institute, and the Kazusa DNA Institute of Japan tested drug compounds using artificial human chromosomes with in-built fluorescent markers. This allowed the team to easily detect when and how often drug treatment caused the loss of chromosomes.
Drugs identified in this way were then tested in different types of cancer cells, to investigate exactly how they were able to disrupt chromosome division at a high rate.
According to Professor William C Earnshaw, of the University of Edinburg, "Our approach enables the selection of drug compounds that disrupt normal division of cancer cells. Our hope is that this can result in the development of more effective therapies to target tumors."
Image: Scientists hope to identify cancer drugs that work in a two-pronged approach, by inducing errors when cancer cells divide packages of their DNA, as seen here, as well as inhibiting telomerase. Image courtesy of Mar Carmena and Emma Peat.