Scientists at the Georgia Regents University Cancer Center have
identified an Indian plant, used for centuries to treat
inflammation, fever and malaria, that could help kill cancer
cells. Cancer cells typically avoid death by hijacking molecular
chaperones that guide and protect the proteins that ensure
normal cellular function and then tricking them into helping
mutated versions of those proteins stay alive, says Dr. Ahmed
Chadli, a researcher in the Molecular Chaperone Program at the
GRU Cancer Center and senior author of the study named the
Journal of Biological Chemistry's Paper of the Week. Drug
development has focused on the chaperone Hsp90 (heat shock
protein 90) because it plays a key role in assisting mutated
proteins, making it an attractive cancer drug target. However,
the clinical efficacy of Hsp90 inhibitors has been
disappointing. Most current small molecules targeting Hsp90 have
inadvertently resulted in the expression of proteins that
protect cancer cells from programmed cell death and comprom