Andreas (Garching)
City of Hope scientists are using a synthetic version of a small peptide derived from scorpion venom to selectively destroy cancer cells. Amazingly, although scorpions use this peptide-known as chlorotoxin-to paralyze their natural prey (small insects and crustaceans), it is not toxic for animals, and it actually seeks out and binds to brain cancer cells, but not to normal brain cells.
In the study, chlorotoxin has been modified with a radioactive isotope to produce a novel and potentially useful drug for treating human cancer. By attaching cancer-killing substances to the toxin, scientists hope to deliver
lethal radiation directly to cancer cells while leaving the healthy surrounding tissue untouched. Investigators plan to begin clinical trials of the therapy in 2002 in adult patients with an untreatable and fatal form of brain cancer
called malignant glioma. About 16,500 Americans are diagnosed with the cancer annually.
The study was developed at City of Hope in collaboration with its sponsor, TransMolecular, Inc., a biotechnology company located in Birmingham, Alabama, and will be carried out at City of Hope Cancer Center and a participating facility at the University of Alabama Medical Center, Birmingham.
From Lucia Newman, CNN Havana Bureau Chief
Thursday, October 23, 2003