Bacterial enzymes boost chemotherapy
29 May, 2007
Source: Victoria University of Wellington
Bacterial enzymes are being tested for their potential to help deliver chemotherapy drugs.
As part of a multi-disciplinary research project, Dr David Ackerley from Victoria University will build on work done at the Auckland Cancer Society Research Centre, where scientists developed and began trialing the chemotherapy "smart-drug" PR-104.
Smart-drugs (also called pro-drugs) are anticancer compounds that are non-toxic in their administration, but become toxic when they are reduced by specific enzymes.
Dr Ackerley says that while PR-104 is activated by human enzymes only under low oxygen conditions such as those found in the core of solid tumours. His current research is looking at bacterial enzymes that can activate the drug regardless of oxygen levels.
“We have discovered several new bacterial enzymes that can activate drugs like PR-104, and which can extend their activity to all types of tumour tissue, not just the low-oxygen regions,” Dr Ackerley says.
Working with Dr Adam Patterson from the Auckland Cancer Society, Dr Ackerley will optimise the activity of the enzymes using a powerful series of techniques known as 'directed evolution'.
Over the past year Dr Ackerley and his team of postgraduate students have been applying these techniques to evolve enzymes with the potential to be useful in a wide range of industrial settings, including cancer treatment.
It is hoped that the technology will potentially enable more effective treatments with diminished side-effects.
