Scripps Research Institute Scientists Create Extremely Potent and Improved New Derivatives of Successful Anticancer Drug

Dale Boger, PhD, is chair of the Department of Chemistry at The Scripps Research Institute.

LA JOLLA, CA—September 16, 2013—Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have found a way to make dramatic improvements to the cancer cell-killing power of vinblastine, one of the most successful chemotherapy drugs of the past few decades. The team’s modified versions of vinblastine showed 10 to 200 times greater potency than the clinical drug. Even more significantly, these new compounds overcome the drug resistance that emerges upon treatment relapse, which renders continued or subsequent vinblastine treatment ineffective in some patients.

http://www.scripps.edu/news/press/2013/20130916boger.html

The TSRI researchers expect that similar modifications will boost the effectiveness of vincristine, a closely related drug that is commonly used against childhood leukemias and Hodgkin’s disease.
http://www.scripps.edu/news/press/2013/20130916boger.html

vincristine



http://www.scripps.edu/news/press/2013/20130916boger.html


vincristine

Scripps Research Institute Scientists Find a Potential Cause of Parkinson’s Disease that Points to a New Therapeutic Strategy

 For a high-resolution image see: http://www.scripps.edu/news/press/
images/reed_steve/reed_steve.jpg
LA JOLLA, CA – July 24, 2013 – Biologists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have made a significant discovery that could lead to a new therapeutic strategy for Parkinson’s disease.
The findings, recently published online ahead of print in the journal Molecular and Cell Biology, focus on an enzyme known as parkin, whose absence causes an early-onset form of Parkinson’s disease. Precisely how the loss of this enzyme leads to the deaths of neurons has been unclear. But the TSRI researchers showed that parkin’s loss sharply reduces the level of another protein that normally helps protect neurons from stress.
 http://www.scripps.edu/news/press/2013/20130724reed.html