In laboratory tests, a dual-action compound called OSU 111 has shown promise in killing prostate cancer cells.

"It had a direct toxic effect on cancer cells, and also prevented angiogenesis the formation of new blood vessels from pre-existing ones," said Tom Li, the study's lead investigator and an associate professor of pharmacy at Ohio State.

"It's like using one stone to kill two birds."

Li presented the results on August 22 in Philadelphia at the summer meeting of the American Chemical Society.

OSU 111 is a variation on a theme Li and his colleagues created OSU 111 using a known anti-cancer compound, SU-5416, as a model. Although SU-5416 showed promise in preclinical studies, it did not have the kind of far-reaching effectiveness that researchers had hoped for.

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"One drug with dual activity means that the body only has to deal with a single compound, and that could eliminate a lot of complexity in terms of giving medication to patients, the body's ability to absorb a drug and also side effects."

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But SU-5416 does provide a good blueprint by which researchers can create dozens of analogs compounds structurally similar, but with slightly different chemical compositions.

"We've made close to 50 different analogs by modifying SU-5416," Li said.

Laboratory experiments show that OSU 111 is one of the most promising analogs for killing cancer cells Li's team has found so far. When treated with OSU 111 in laboratory experiments, the majority of prostate cancer tissue cells died within three days, Li said.

"This compound stopp
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Contact: Tom Li
li.27@osu.edu
614-688-0253
Ohio State University
22-Aug-2004