PAC 1
Thanks to a new $2 million investment, a drug that spurs cancer cells to self-destruct while sparing healthy cells is on the road to human clinical trials. The compound, known as PAC-1, has so far proven safe and has promising anti-cancer effects in cell culture, in mouse models of cancer and in pet dogs with spontaneously occurring lymphomas and osteosarcomas.
If PAC-1 (pack one) makes it through the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Investigational New Drug review, the first human (Phase I) clinical trial of the drug will begin in mid-2014. The investor, who wishes to remain anonymous, has an option to invest another $2 million to take the drug into human trials. The clinical work will be conducted at the University of Illinois Cancer Center in Chicago.
http://news.illinois.edu/news/13/0717cancer_drug_PaulHergenrother_TimFan.html
Photo by
L. Brian Stauffer
University of Illinois chemistry professor Paul Hergenrother, left, and veterinary clinical medicine professor Tim Fan led a study of an anti-cancer compound in pet dogs that is now headed for human clinical trials.
PAC-1 (first procaspase activating compound) is a synthesized chemical compound that selectively induces apoptosis, or cell suicide, in cancerous cells. PAC-1 has shown good results in mouse models and is being further evaluated for use in humans. In 2010 a published study showed PAC-1 to be safe to research dogs, and a second study published later that same year reported that a PAC-1 derivative (called S-PAC-1) was well tolerated in a small Phase I Clinical Trial of pet dogs with lymphoma. Even at low doses of S-PAC-1, tumors regressed in 1/6 dogs, and the disease was stabilized (no additional tumor growth) in 3/6 dogs