Novel and Less Toxic Anticancer Drug Candidate Developed

Professor Jonathan Sessler at the University of Texas released his research result on the anticancer drug candidate of oxaliTEX on March 17. Dr. Hong Kwan-soo and his research team at the Korea Basic Science Institute (KBSI) participated in the professor’s animal model experiment for verifying the efficacy of oxaliTEX against lung cancer.

OxaliTEX is divided into the star-shaped molecule of texaphyrin as a deliverer and a platinum-based drug for killing a cancer cell. The molecule is designed to be more easily absorbed by a cancer cell than by a general healthy cell and, as such, side effects can be reduced. The novel platinum-based drug reduces toxicity, side effects and the tolerance of cancer cells.

The researchers examined the effects of oxaliTEX and commercially available carboplatin by using laboratory mice with ovarian cancer. Tumors continued to grow in the carboplatin-injected mice whereas oxaliTEX completely stopped tumor growth for some cancers and eliminated a large number of tumors for multiple cancers.

In addition, the researchers examined the toxic side effects of oxaliTEX and oxaliplatin by using laboratory mice with colorectal cancer. They confirmed that oxaliTEX is much lower in toxicity.

Dr. Hong Kwan-soo and KBSI researchers Kim Hyun-min, Lee Hyun-seung and Cho Mi-yeong put their names on the professor’s latest paper. The professor asked them to join the last preclinical stage of his research. In that stage, the professor conducted chemical synthesis and the South Korean researchers were in charge of anticancer efficacy evaluation in animal models. The researchers conducted experiments by making laboratory mouse models based on gene-manipulated human lung cancer cells and checked living laboratory mice with an in-vivo optical imaging system by applying light-emitting proteins to the lung cancer cells.