New Mouse Model for Testing Cancer Drugs
Date: 28.7.2011
Only one in twenty cancer drugs makes its way from the laboratory to become an approved pharmaceutical product. The majority of new agents are only shown to be unsuitable in the later phases of clinical development which would explain the exorbitantly high development costs of 500 to 600 million euros per new cancer drug. In order to recognize at an earlier stage which side effects are associated with the use of new cancer drugs, a research group under the guidance of the Goethe University has developed a new mouse model.
This study has been published in the current issue of the journal, Nature Communications.
The cancer gene, polo-like kinase 1 (Plk1), which is currently the subject of intense investigation, plays a central role in cell division. However, up to now, it has not been possible with classical mouse model to investigate what would happen if this gene were to be silenced in adult animals since the latter is indispensable to embryonic de-velopment.
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