Discovering Biology

[Guest guest]

After further checking information listed in Aliza's post, I found a few things

you may be interested in.

The scientists found that a cancer drug called VX-680 binds strongly to ABL and

its mutations, including a common mutation (T315I) that confers resistance to

Gleevec and other second-generation drugs, including Bristol-Myers Squibb's

BMS-354825 and Novartis' AMN107. Another molecule called SU-11248, currently in

clinical trials for gastrointestinal stromal tumors, bound strongly to the KIT

target, including the resistance-conferring mutation T670I. Gleevec and other

molecules fail to inhibit this mutant protein.

http://www.bio-itworld.com/newsitems/2005/07-05/07-27-05-news-ambit (older

news)

April 23, 2008 - Traditional approaches to developing drugs that target kinases

rely on selecting a single kinase of interest and finding a compound that

inhibits it, a time consuming and resource-intensive process. The new approach

of high throughput kinase profiling gives drug developers a tool to make

kinase-focused drug discovery more efficient and cost effective. Kinases are

among the most important drug targets. They are essential for the normal

regulation of cellular function, and abnormal kinase activity is implicated in

cancer, inflammation, metabolic disorders and other diseases. There are eight

small molecule kinase inhibitors on the market today generating over $5 billion

in annual sales. The application of high throughput kinase profiling, in

contrast, incorporates screening of compound libraries against all potential

kinase drug targets at once, providing a complete view of all opportunities

afforded by compounds in the library.

http://www.ambitbio.com/news/press_042308.htm

To help optimize treatment outcomes for Ph+ CML patients, CML AllianceT offers

clinicians state-of-the-art blood level testing, a form of therapeutic drug

monitoring, to help identify suboptimal response due to nonadherence.

http://www.cmlalliance.com/health-care-professional/cml-blood-level-tests.jsp?si\

te=google & irmasrc=none & source=01030 & campaign=CML-900127

FOR YOUR INFORMATION, Avantix has a Blood Level Testing program. Testing will

be provided at no cost to either professional or patient. To find out how to

register for this program, click here. I would say that this would have to be

between you and your doctor and since it from Novartis, you would have to be on

one of their products, such as Gleevec and AMN107.

http://dev.gleevecmonitor.com/Overview/FAQs/tabid/99/Default.aspx

This is part of the article that I had quoted earlier from a web cam. This is

part of the transcript and the site where you can read the whole thing. " NEIL

SHAH, MD, PhD: So she had an immediate, complete hematologic response, and we

were able to remove her hydroxyurea, and that was the first sign that we were

actually controlling her disease. And she subsequently has had bone marrow

biopsies which have shown a complete cytogenetic remission, which is really very

exciting, that we can take patients who otherwise have very few options to

control their disease and get it back into a remission state that's pretty much

as good as anything Gleevec could accomplish. So she's now in what we would call

a complete cytogenetic remission. " I have now stopped beating myself up about

reaching CCR. Maybe for me, this is as good as it gets, just as the above

patient.

http://gastro-org.healthology.com/leukemia/leukemia-living-with/video1874.htm?pg\

=2

Blessings,

Lottie