Researchers Isolate Protein Domain Linked to Tumor Progression

When a promising cancer drug reached clinical trials in the 1990s, researchers were disappointed by the debilitating side effects that limited the trials. The drug inhibited a family of enzymes known as matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). Now, researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have shown that creating drugs that inactivate a different part of the MMP enzyme could have the capacity to target the tumor without the damaging side effects. Their findings, which hold promise for improved cancer therapies, were published Feb. 5 in the online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

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