Asthma drug could stop prostate cancer, inhaler tied to migraines, depression
BRITISH scientists have made a landmark discovery that could help slow or even stop the spread of prostate cancer to the bones.
Once prostate cancer has formed tumour outposts in bone marrow, the disease is usually considered incurable.
But scientists at York University have discovered why prostate cancer so often spreads to the bone – and how the process can be stopped.
They found that a protein in bone marrow acts like a ‘magnetic docking station’ for prostate cancer cells in the blood.
And they have also discovered that a non-toxic drug known only as AS1517499, previously tested for treating allergic asthma, appears to stop the cancer from growing once embedded in the bone.
The researchers now hope to test the drug on patients with advanced prostate cancer.
Professor Norman Maitland, chairman of molecular biology at York University, said circulating prostate cancer cells were like space ships searching for places to dock in the body to start a new colony.
“Without this docking station, the “ship”, or cell, will just float around, not causing any further harm,” he added.
Certain proteins in bone act like ‘magnetic docking stations for the receptors on the stem cells of the cancer’. Once ‘docked’, a signal is sent to the cancer cell’s nucleus, which instructs it to start growing the cancer colony.
As a result, about 80 per cent of men with advanced prostate cancer suffer from tumours in the bone. These grow and eventually overcome the body, proving fatal.
Maitland said clinical trials of AS1517499 were ‘some way off’ and that, when they did start, they would almost certainly involve men in the advanced stages of the illness.
Meanwhile, the asthma medication Singulair (montelukast) appears linked to neuropsychiatric side effects, such as depression, aggression, nightmares and headaches, according to a new review by Dutch researchers.
The study's findings were published September 20 in Pharmacology Research and Perspectives.