Synthetic Molecules Could Offer A Lower Cost Cancer Treatment Alternative

Researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center have created an easy and inexpensive way to screen synthetic molecules, enabling them to pull out the few that could treat diseases like cancer. This low cost alternative could open up a new world of possibilities for cash strapped labs looking to make advances in their fields.

In a test screen of more than 300,000 synthetic molecules, also known as peptoids, the method quickly found five promising peptoids that acted like an antibody that is already on the market for the treatment of cancer. One of the five was found to block tumors in a mouse used for the experiment.

"Many new drugs being made today are antibodies, but they are extremely expensive to make. Financially, the United States health care system is going to have a difficult time accommodating the next 500 drugs being antibodies," explained Dr. Thomas Kodadek, senior author of the study and chief of translational research at UT Southwestern.

The results of his study, which currently appears online and will be published in a later issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society, have industry insiders excited about the possibilities that may come out of his research.

"Our results show that a peptoid can attack a harmful receptor in the body with the same precision as an antibody, but would cost much less to develop," he went on to say.

"Our technique is simple and fast, works with existing chemicals and needs no high-tech instrumentation, except for a microscope to tetect the fluorescent colors we use to sort the compounds," Dr. D. Gomika Udugamasooriya, the other lead author of the study and postdoctoral researcher in internal medicine, elaborated.

While previous methods require extensive automation and can cost $40,000 or more, the new method described by the researchers of the study can be conducted for less than $1,000.

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