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Bionovo Drug Shows Potential in Aggressive Breast Cancer

Posted on: Wednesday, 22 February 2006, 21:00 CST

A phase I study has suggested that Bionovo's oral anticancer drug BZL101, derived from the Asian plant Scutellaria Barbata, may have utility in the treatment of aggressive late-stage breast cancer.

Researchers at The University of California at San Francisco and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center recently completed the study and reported favorable data from these trials at the 28th annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

At the symposium, the researchers said that four of the 16 patients that were evaluated for final results had stable disease for greater than 90 days, and three of the 16 had stable disease that lasted more than 180 days. Five patients in the trial had objective tumor regression, and all 16 patients demonstrated little to no side effects from the drug.

According to Bionovo, BZL101 works by eliciting a cancer cell's innate mechanism of self-suicide, or apoptosis. The drug selectively releases apoptosis inducing factor-1 (AIF1) from a cancer cell's mitochondrial membrane. AIF then moves to the cell's nucleus, disintegrating the DNA structure, and fragmenting and killing the cancer cell.

Bionovo's scientists have shown that although AIF exists in all cells, this protein-translocation process can be elicited exclusively in cancer cells while avoiding normal cells.

"In the cell, AIF is responsible for killing cells that don't perform their intended functions or cells that are not in their proper place such as cancer cells which lose functions through mutations and invade local and distant tissues," said Dr Isaac Cohen, Bionovo's president and CEO.

Source: Datamonitor

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