New treatment offers hope for multiple myeloma and lymphoma
Karyopharm of Israel and Massachusetts gets FDA approval for XPOVIO, the first drug aimed to help natural tumor-suppressing proteins do their job.
One passenger on the XPO1 shuttle is a tumor-suppressing protein
One passenger on the XPO1 shuttle is a tumor-suppressing protein. Its job is to conduct regular “audits” of a cell to ensure the DNA is not damaged. If it is, the protein instructs the cell to enter“programmed cell death,” whereby the cell essentially commits suicide. Cancer cells, by their very nature, have damaged DNA – that’s what causes them to divide uncontrollably, creating tumors. In a healthy immune system, the tumor-suppressor proteins would catch the DNA mistakes in the nucleus and stop the cells from proliferating. But cancer outwits the tumor-suppressing proteins by increasing XPO1 activity. More frequent trains take the suppressor proteins out of the nucleus of the cell – where they should be stopping the cancer – and deposit them far away. “They can’t do their job because they’re geographically removed from where they’re supposed to be,” says Sharon Shacham, CEO of Karyopharm Therapeutics, an Israel- and Massachusetts-based company that has developed a new drug that inhibits XPO1 activity in a cell. “We stop the train from taking the passengers.”-- More...View Comments
ISRAEL21c——Bio and Archives
ISRAEL21c was founded in 2001, in the wake of the Second Intifada, to broaden public understanding of Israel beyond typical portrayals in the mainstream media.
The organization’s founders – Israeli-American technology executives – understood the great power of the Internet and developed a first-of-its kind online product with global appeal and reach.