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Drug
Reduces Effects of Radiation on the Body Could
Benefit both cancer patients and radiation victims
Gudkov has founded Cleveland Biolabs Inc. which will market the drug. The drug is intended to be used both in cancer radiotherapy and for biodefense. The US Department of Defense and other government agencies are providing funding for the research. Science magazine reported that the experimental drug protected mice and monkeys from what should have been lethal doses of radiation. http://www.sciencemag.org/ The drug is said to protect the more radiosensitive sensitive portions of the body like the gastrointestinal tract and the bone marrow. The research team found that the cells in these areas die from a process called apoptosis. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apoptosis Apoptosis is the body's way of stopping defective cells, with damaged genes, from spreading. Cancers may block apoptosis by activating a cell-signaling pathway called "nuclear factor-KappaB" or NFKB. The research team activated that same pathway in healthy tissue. Flagellin, a protein in gut bacteria, may wake up NFKB. The new drug is based on that natural protein. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flagellin Tests on humans are scheduled. This drug offers a totally different approach to the protection from radiation damage and Radiation Syndrome. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation_poisoning
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A
new drug might help reduce the effects of radiation on the body. Andrei
Gudkov of the Roswell Park Cancer Institute developed the drug, named
CBLB502.