Xenova of the UK has begun clinical testing of its second product candidate, a drug for the treatment of cancer in patients who have developed resistance to a wide range of chemotherapeutic agents.
Preclinical studies have revealed that XR9051 is a highly-potent reverser of multidrug resistance, restoring sensitivity of cancer cells to a range of anticancer drugs, including doxorubicin, paclitaxel, etoposide, mitoxantrone, vinblastine, vincristine and daunorubicin. The compound, an optimized synthetic analog of a compound originally discovered in a microbe, also has a long duration of action and can be given orally or intravenously.
Multidrug resistance often results when a cancer cell begins to overexpress and overproduce p-glycoprotein, one of the functions of which is to pump chemicals, including anticancer drugs, out of the cell. Because this decreases the concentration of the drug below the level which exerts its cytotoxic effect, and because the dose cannot be raised for fear of toxicities, the tumors in which MDR is expressed become resistant to drug treatment.
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