MONTREAL, July 11, 2011 /PRNewswire/ - Sunshine Biopharma Inc. (OTCBB: SBFM), a development stage pharmaceutical company focused on the research, development and commercialization of drugs for the treatment of various forms of cancer, today announced that it has completed a detailed cytotoxicity study of its lead compound, Adva-27a, in MCF-7/MDR, a Multidrug Resistant Breast Cancer cell line. Cytotoxicity studies measure the ability of a drug to destroy cancer cells in vitro. The results of the study showed that Adva-27a is 16-times more effective at killing Multidrug Resistant Breast Cancer cells than Etoposide, the current commonly used drug. In addition, data generated by the study revealed that Adva-27a is unaffected by the molecular machinery which are responsible for making cancer cells resistant to drugs.
"These findings are remarkable", said Dr. Steve N. Slilaty, Sunshine's President and CEO. He added, "Cancer cells become resistant to anti-tumour drugs by overproducing a protein called P-Glycoprotein. Encoded by the ABCB1 gene (also called the MDR1 gene), P-Glycoprotein is a trans-membrane enzyme that binds and transports drugs to the outside of cancer cells thereby making them resistant. P-Glycoprotein pumps out most, if not all, antineoplastics including doxorubicin, vinblastine, gemcitabine, etoposide, paclitaxel, etc. Our data showed that P-Glycoprotein cannot bind and transport Adva-27a. This is extremely interesting with far reaching scientific and drug development implications. Previously unavailable, Adva-27a now offers a chemical structure which can be used as a basis for studying the mechanism of action of P-Glycoprotein as well as for the development of new drugs which can overcome the resistance caused by P-Glycoprotein and similar enzymes".
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SOURCE Sunshine Biopharma Inc.