The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a new cancer treatment drug for clinical trial. The drug, developed by Quintessence Biosciences Inc. in Madison, Wisconsin, is derived from human ribonuclease, and will be the first human-originated drug to undergo clinical trial.

Laura Strong, President of Quintessence Biosciences Inc., stated that ribonuclease is a “protein that chews up RNA,” or the long strands of transmitters that carry messages back and forth for the body’s cells.

When administered to patients with certain types of cancer, the ribonuclease will “chop” the extensive strand of RNA into smaller parts, and “the cancer cells can no longer read the message,” according to Strong. This would potentially inhibit further growth of cancerous cells and tumors.

The clinical trial, which will begin in January of 2009, will have 30 participants and will take place at the University of Wisconsin Comprehensive Cancer Center. Participants will have “solid or non-blood-based tumors” and will have been unresponsive to previous cancer treatment.

The drug, called QBI-139, has already been shown to avert growth of pancreatic, prostate, ovarian and non-small-cell lung tumors in previous animal testing.

A company known as Alfacell Corp., based in New Jersey, has already tested ribonuclease derived from frogs in Phase III trials. The trials were successful, but like some other anti-cancer drugs, toxic reactions in the kidneys currently prevent the frog-derived ribonuclease from being administered in higher, more effective doses.

Cancer researchers hope that QBI-139 may be successful in treating patients with mesothelioma cancer tumors in the future.

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