Obesity drug helps advance cancer research
News Date: 02/01/2007
Outlet: United Press International

U.S. cancer researchers say they've discovered that a drug used to fight obesity can prevent tumor cell growth and promote tumor cell death.

Assistant Professor Steven Kridel and colleagues at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine say they are the first to report a tubular network within cells, known as the endoplasmic reticulum, or ER, is regulated by an enzyme closely linked with tumor growth and development.

The research showed an enzyme known as fatty acid synthase is vital for the ER to do its job. Blocking that enzyme, which makes fat in cells, has been shown to prevent tumor cell growth and to promote cell death.

No one had made connection before between fatty acid synthase and the function of the ER in tumor cells, said Kridel. This is the first to show that fatty acid synthesis is important in maintaining ER function and keeping tumor cells alive.

The researchers found Orlistat, a drug approved to treat obesity, can block the function of fatty acid synthase, thereby preventing tumor cell growth and promoting tumor cell death.

The study appears in the current issue of the journal Cancer Research.

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