By Marty Trieschmann
Researchers at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute and the Mayo Clinic have discovered a way to supercharge molecular cancer treatments to destroy more cancer-causing proteins in cells.
The research findings of UAMS’ Hong-yu Li, Ph.D., the Helen Adams and Arkansas Research Alliance Endowed Chair in Drug Discovery and professor of Medicinal Chemistry and Chemical Biology in the UAMS College of Pharmacy, and Haojie Huang, Ph.D., the Gordon H. and Violet Partels professor of Cellular Biology at the Mayo Clinic, are featured in the August issue of Advanced Science.
Li and Huang’s research gives drug makers a new road map to enhance the molecular cancer treatment therapy by PROTAC technology, a rapidly evolving treatment that is in clinical trials. PROTACs (Proteolysis Targeting Chimeras) are genetically engineered molecular compounds that bridge cancer-causing proteins with the molecules that seek to destroy them.
