Aphios
Corporation Announces Licensing of Non-Toxic Vitamin D Analog
for Prostate Cancer from Boston University Medical School
December
13, 2005
- Aphios Corporation today
announced that it has licensed a Vitamin D analog from Boston
University Medical School for development as a prostate
cancer drug.
Prostate
cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in men
in the United States. Several epidemiological studies have
demonstrated that people who live in higher latitudes are
at higher risk of dying of many cancers, including prostate
cancer. It has also been demonstrated that there is an inverse
relationship between latitude, sun exposure, cutaneous synthesis
of Vitamin D and skin color, i.e. dark skinned people, e.g.
African-Americans living in the Northeastern hemisphere
have a higher likelihood of getting and dying from prostate
cancer.
The
mainstay of chemotherapy includes androgen deprivation by
surgical removal of the testicles. However, no therapy is
currently available for prostate cancers that are localized
and/or metastasized and fail to respond to androgen therapy.
Most human prostate cancer cells contain the Vitamin D receptor
(VDR). Numerous studies have shown that prostate cancer
cells respond to VDR by enhancing differentiation and decreasing
proliferation. These findings strongly support the use of
Vitamin D-based agents for first line and/or second line
therapy when androgen deprivation failed. However, the use
of Vitamin D and analogs that are currently being tested
in the clinic is limited by toxic side-effects of hypercalcemia
and hypercalciuria. Thus, less calcemic/toxic analogs of
Vitamin D and/or its metabolites with potent antiproliferative
activities are attractive agents for prostate cancer.
Scientists
at Boston University Medical School have developed a non-toxic
analog of Vitamin D and have demonstrated that this analog
strongly suppressed the proliferation of several prostate
cancer cells and induced apoptosis or cell death of cancerous
cells in in vitro studies. Additionally, according to the
lead inventor Dr. Rahul Ray of Boston University, “We
demonstrated in preliminary mouse studies that our Vitamin
D analog is non-toxic at doses that are considered to be
extremely toxic with vitamin D and current analogs that
are in the clinic. Furthermore, our Vitamin D analog caused
significant reduction of prostate tumor in a mouse xenograft
model without much toxicity.”
.
Aphios Corporation (www.aphios.com)
is a specialty pharmaceutical company that is developing
enhanced natural therapeutics for health maintenance and
the treatment of human diseases with a focus on oncology,
infectious diseases, and quality-of-life medicines
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