FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Christine Guilfoy
Office: (301) 634-7253
cguilfoy@the-aps.org
Taking the Fight Against Cancer to Heart
BETHESDA, Md. (Feb. 25, 2008) Hormones produced
by the heart eliminated human pancreatic cancer in more than three-quarters
of the mice treated with the hormones and eliminated human breast cancer in
two-thirds of the mice, according to researcher David Vesely, a doctor at
the James A. Haley Veterans Hospital in Tampa and a professor at the
University of South Florida (USF).
The treatment has not yet been tried in humans, but a
private biotechnology company is raising money in the hope of beginning
human trials. Vesely is the hospital’s chief of endocrinology, diabetes and
metabolism and is also professor of medicine, molecular pharmacology and
physiology at USF.
He will present his research at a symposium April 9 at
the Experimental Biology 2008 conference in San Diego. The American
Federation for Medical Research sponsors the session, which takes place
during the annual meeting of The American Physiological Society.
The discovery of cardiac hormones
For more than 350 years, scientists and physicians
thought the heart was a pump, delivering blood and oxygen to the body. But
that view changed dramatically in 1981 when Adolfo deBold discovered that
the heart produces atrial natriuretic factor (ANF), so-named because it is
produced in the atrium of the heart and stimulates the production of urine
and the excretion of sodium.
Vesely later discovered three more hormones that are
produced from the same gene as ANF. He called them:
-
Long acting natriuretic peptide, which also
stimulates urine production and sodium excretion.
-
Vessel dilator which opens the blood vessels and
lowers blood pressure
-
Kaliuretic peptide which increases potassium
excretion
The hormones, called peptide hormones because they are
composed of amino acids, help regulate blood volume and blood pressure. Most
hormones, including such well-known hormones as insulin, are peptide
hormones.
Started with congestive heart failure research
Vesely began his research on cardiac hormones by
looking at the role they can play in diagnosing and treating congestive
heart failure. Following his wife’s death from breast cancer in 2002 -- and
as it became clear that the hormones controlled cell growth -- he decided to
place the hormones into cancer cell cultures.
Using colon, ovarian, breast, prostate and pancreatic
cancer cells, among others, Vesely found that the hormones kill up to 97% of
all cancers in cell cultures within 24 hours. He then turned to trials with
mice, injecting some with pancreatic cancer cells and others with breast
cancer cells. Once the mice developed tumors, he treated them with the
hormones.
At the end of one month, the treatment had eliminated
cancer in 80% of the mice injected with human pancreatic cancer and in 66%
of the mice injected with breast cancer. The results with pancreatic cancer
were particularly exciting because it is a fast-moving cancer with poor
prognosis.
No side effects in mice
The pancreatic cancers that were not cured were reduced
to less than 10% of their original size. Treatment with vessel dilator gave
the best results: reducing the tumor to 2% of its largest size. None of the
mice died of cancer – all died of old age – and none suffered any side
effects.
None of the mice received any other course of
treatment such as surgery, chemotherapy or radiation and they did not suffer
any side effects. After the mice died at the end of a normal life span, the
researchers found that the cancer had not spread. If the hormones act the
same way in humans, cancer could become a chronic condition treatable with
these hormones, Vesely said.
A private biotechnology company is raising money to
begin human trials, Vesely said. The Haley hospital and University of South
Florida hold the patents on the discoveries.
The symposium that Vesely will moderate, “Cardiac
hormones for the treatment of acute myocardial infarctions, congestive heart
failure, acute renal failure and cancer,” also features presentations by
other leading researchers in the field of cardiac hormones:
John C Burnett, Jr. of the Mayo Clinic and
Foundation, who will discuss research on the use of a cardiac hormone orally
to treat congestive heart failure and to reduce damage to heart tissue as a
result of a heart attack.
Walter H. Hörl of the University of Vienna will
discuss his research measuring the cardiac hormones in guiding treatment of
kidney disease and dialysis.
Adolfo J. deBold and Mercedes deBold, of
the University of Ottawa Heart Institute will discuss the physiology and
gene expression of cardiac hormones, also known as natriuretic peptide
hormones (ANPs) and the central role of G-protein signaling in natriuretic
peptide secretion.
Editor’s Notes: To arrange an interview with
Dr. Vesely, please contact Christine Guilfoy at
cguilfoy@the-aps.org or (301) 634-7253.
A portion of the interview with Dr. Vesely can
be found on Life Lines, the podcast of The American Physiological
Society. You can find it, as of Feb. 28, at
www.lifelines.tv.
Physiology is the study of how molecules,
cells, tissues and organs function to create health or disease. The American
Physiological Society (
www.the-aps.org) has been an integral part of this scientific discovery
process since it was established in 1887.
This symposium is supported
by a grant from the National Center for Research Resources ((NCRR), a
component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and its contents are
solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent
the official view of NCRR or NIH.
|
