Mitchell Cancer Institute’s colon cancer research featured in national journal

Kevin Lee, Ph.D., assistant professor of research, works in a lab at the Mitchell Cancer Institute.

A compound discovered at the USA Health Mitchell Cancer Institute has been shown to block an enzyme critical to the development of colon cancer in mice and is the subject of a new paper published in the scientific journal Cancer Prevention Research.

The compound, ADT 061, is a derivative of the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug sulindac and was developed in-house at the MCI, said Kevin Lee, Ph.D., assistant professor of research and lead author of the paper, featured on the cover of the journal’s November issue.

Mitchell Cancer Institute researchers treated mice with ADT 061 to determine whether it would inhibit the enzyme phosphodiesterase 10A (PDE10), which is overexpressed in colon cells during the early stages of cancer and is essential for colon cancer cell growth. MCI collaborated with Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia on the project.

“We found that ADT 061 inhibits colon cancer cell lines without inhibiting normal cell lines,” Lee said. “In the mouse model with a high incidence of colon cancer, we saw a 30 to 40 percent decrease in cancer.”

Lee said that while some anti-inflammatory drugs produce toxic side effects in the liver, ADT 061 was modified to have fewer side effects. He said that further studies in animal models will be needed to test the compound for safety and efficacy.

ADT 061 was among two classes of anti-cancer compounds discovered in recent years by former MCI researcher Gary A. Piazza, Ph.D., now at Auburn University, and MCI’s Drug Discovery Research Center. Their development as potential drug candidates for colon, pancreatic and gynecologic cancers have been the subject of research presentations and awards over the past three years.

Read the full article in Cancer Prevention Research.