Using bacterial enzymes to boost chemotherapy

victoria-university-of-wellington

Mon May 21 2007 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)

Using bacterial enzymes to boost chemotherapy

Monday, 21 May 2007, 10:50 am
Press Release: Victoria University of Wellington

MEDIA RELEASE

18 May 2007

A Victoria University biotechnology research project that will test a range of bacterial enzymes with the potential for use in the delivery of chemotherapeutic drugs has been awarded more than $388,000 by the Cancer Society of New Zealand.

Led by Dr David Ackerley in the School of Biological Sciences, the multi-disciplinary research will build on the work of researchers at the Auckland Cancer Society Research Centre who earlier this year developed and began trialling the chemotherapeutic “smart-drug” PR-104.

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 research looks at bacterial enzymes that can activate the drug regardless of oxygen levels.

"Gene therapy can be used to deliver such enzymes directly to tumour cells, but to date the effectiveness of this method has been limited by inefficient delivery systems. 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.

The research combines internationally recognised expertise in microbiology, molecular biology, and medicinal chemistry. With Auckland Cancer Society researcher Dr Adam Patterson, Dr Ackerley will optimise the activity of these enzymes using a powerful series of techniques known as 'directed evolution' For the past year Dr Ackerley and his team of postgraduate students in the School of Biological Sciences at Victoria have been applying these techniques to evolve enzymes with the potential to be useful in a wide range of industrial settings, including in the treatment of cancer.

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He says the technology will potentially enable more effective chemotherapeutic treatments that have diminished side-effects in the human body.

Smart-drugs, or pro-drugs, are anticancer compounds that are non-toxic in their administration, but which become toxic when they are reduced by specific enzymes. Certain types of virus or bacteria can be modified to preferentially colonise cancerous cells, and anti-cancer gene therapy uses these agents to deliver pro-drug reducing enzymes specifically to tumours.

ENDS

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