Opposing Many forms of cancer by means of Technology
Only negative ideas of misery and death come to mind at the mention of the word cancer. Cancer is globally recognized as a major cause of death. Back then, chemotherapy or surgical removal were the only methods known to treat cancer. But there has been a recent discovery that may help bring about a cure for cancer. These are medically coined as PARP inhibitors. Prostate, breast, and ovarian cancer are the main targets of this drug. The inhibitors are in progress of development so they can be used to treat voluntary patients with cancer. Assuming that things work out, one may find a definite cure in a PARP inhibitor.
What does PARP exactly stand for? PARP basically means poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase. It might seem difficult to understand, but in reality it is simply a protein or enzyme that functions as a DNA fixer. PARP activates whenever a cell is in need of regeneration.
Doesn’t sound too difficult, right? Every normal cell in the body is benefitting from PARP. But, they’re not the only ones using it. Cancer cells also make use of the protein. What makes this possible? Cancer cells spread just like normal cells do, and treatments like chemotherapy get in the way of that. Yet, cancer cells are using PARP to repair themselves, which means treatments can’t be as effective.
PARP inhibitors help reduce the ability of PARP proteins to fix cancer cells. The PARP inhibitor was initially made to deal with stroke, but scientists later established that it was more beneficial for the treatment of cancer. Cancer cells can’t grow or regenerate if the structure responsible for that is inhibited. Luckily, there are only slight side-effects that come with the inhibitors, plus normal cells remain undisturbed.
The potency of chemotherapy and radiation amplifies with the use of a PARP inhibitor, which means more cancer cells will die. There are handful of companies who have manufacture drugs with PARP inhibitors and there are some examples listed below:
. Iniparib – breast and squamous lung cancer-tested; unsuccessful in triple negative breast cancer trial; presently in Phase 3 clinical trials
. Olaparib – completed Phase 2 clinical trials; used for breast, colorectal, and ovarian cancer
. intended for metastatic melanoma and breast cancer, undergoing Phase 2 trial
. MK 4827 – inhibitor for PARP 1 and PARP 2; began Phase 1 with about 60 patients
Since these inhibitors are still in development and aren’t ready for public use, the war against cancer goes on. Whether or not any one PARP inhibitor is at optimal effectiveness has not been announced. The fact still remains that PARP inhibitors are a giant improvement for humankind in the battle against the disease that’s claimed thousands of lives. If one wants to do more research, they can check the website PARP-Inhibitors.com.
We have witnessed a great deal of breakthroughs in the area of medicine. One particular instance could be the parp inhibitors discovery.