New cancer chemical identification could result in new drugs

The discovery of the founding member of a chemical family by scientists from St Jude Children's Research Hospital could herald the development of a new class of cancer drugs specifically against a childhood tumour.

A research team led by scientists from the organisation believes it has identified the chemical, which is the first small-molecule inhibitor to target the MDMX protein implicated in promoting a variety of cancers.

The childhood eye tumor retinoblastoma, as well as certain cases of breast, lung, prostate and other cancers, can occur if there is an abundance of MDMX, according to the researchers, whose work is in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

'We went from a discovery in childhood cancer, MDMX amplification, to characterising this first inhibitor in about three-and one-half years,' explained the paper's senior author Michael Dyer, a developmental neurobiology specialist.

MDMX and its sister protein MDM2 can be responsible for tumour progression by binding and suppressing a protein called p53, which helps to induce death in normal cells.

According to Cancer Research UK, Childhood cancer is much less common than adult cancer, with about 1,700 cases of annual diagnosis in children under 15.