Malignant tumors seriously endanger human life and health, and the occurrence and death of malignant tumors are becoming more and more serious. Therefore, more and more attention has been paid to the research of antitumor drugs. Governments around the world, famous pharmaceutical enterprises and research institutions have invested a lot of human and material resources in the development of new anti-tumor drugs. In recent years, great progress has been made in tumor chemotherapy, and the survival time of tumor patients has been significantly prolonged, especially in the treatment of leukemia and malignant lymphoma. However, the treatment of solid tumors, which seriously endanger human life and health and account for more than 90% of malignant tumors, is not satisfactory. China currently produces more than 40 kinds of anti-tumor chemicals, but most of them are imitations. It is more and more important to develop a class of new anti-tumor drugs with China's independent intellectual property rights.
At the 2009 National Science and Technology Awards Conference, Shanghai scientists and a number of scientific and technological innovation achievements achieved good results again. A new anti-tumor drug has been "refined" from the Chinese herbal medicine red root grass, which "dispels wind heat and benefits the throat", and it has gathered the wisdom and painstaking efforts of several generations of scientific researchers of Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Scientists named it "salvixen". During its phase II clinical trial, the research on its molecular action mechanism won the second prize of the National Natural Science Award in 2009.
A large number of in vitro anti-tumor experiments show thatSalweisinIt can significantly inhibit the proliferation and growth of solid tumor cells and drug resistance, such as lung adenocarcinoma, gastric adenocarcinoma, ovarian cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, colon cancer and cervical cancer. The study on the mechanism of action showed that Salween was a new topoisomerase II inhibitor. As Salween is a brand-new chemical structure with significant activity against solid tumor cells, its development and research has been included in the national "1035" plan of the Ministry of science and technology, and has been specially supported by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Commission. It has been carefully modified by scientists for more than two years: changing some structures of the compound molecules, enhancing its anti-tumor activity, reducing its toxicity to animals, and improving the stability of the active ingredients... Finally, salweesin was born!
Like many existing drugs, Salween destroys DNA by inhibiting topoisomerase II and causes tumor cell death. However, Salween can also release reactive oxygen species, which can inactivate an integrin that helps cancer cell metastasis, thereby inhibiting cancer cell metastasis; Salween can also reduce a transporter on tumor cell membrane, which always likes to drive drug molecules out of tumor cells. Reducing it will reduce tumor drug resistance. Therefore, Salween not only has strong anti-tumor activity, but also is not easy to produce drug resistance; Its toxicity is also lower than many anti-tumor drugs, and it can also inhibit tumor metastasis. Salween is a new anti-tumor drug independently developed in China. It is of great significance and is also a good news for cancer patients in China.