Preliminary Study Revealed Evidence That Investigational Drug Phenoxodiol Targets Prostate Cancer Protein

A research group headed by James Morre, Ph.D., professor of medicinal chemistry at Purdue University, obtained results supporting that phenoxodiol (an investigational drug) may be effective in the treatment of prostate cancer by specifically targeting a protein on prostate cancer cells known as tNOX 75 alpha.

The Purdue team has identified the protein, tumor-associated NADH oxidase (or tNOX), as a pan-cancer marker. The protein is critical to the ability of the tumor cell to grow and to survive.

They also have shown that there are different forms of this protein, known as isoforms, and that different tNOX isoforms are associated with different forms of cancer.

The team has demonstrated previously that tNOX is the primary molecular target for phenoxodiol. The 75 alpha protein appears to be the particular tNOX isoform found in prostate cancer patients, and that is one of the isoforms targeted by phenoxodiol.

Prostate cancer is one of the most serious and common types of cancer found in American men and we already know that prostate specific antigen (PSA) is another protein found exclusively on prostate cancer cells. While PSA is widely used to diagnose prostate cancer and to determine response to therapy, there is no anti-cancer drug that specifically targets PSA because the protein is not essential to tumor cell survival.

Therefore, PSA is not a universally reliable marker of the efficacy of a particular drug.

Because tNOX is essential for tumor cell survival, it makes for an excellent target for anti-cancer drug activity.

When phenoxodiol binds to tNOX, the protein is inhibited, blocking the cell from dividing, and switching off a variety of pro-survival signaling mechanisms within the cell. Where this inhibition reaches a certain level, the cell dies; where it is below a lethal level, the cell is blocked from dividing.

Marshall Edwards, Inc., (Nasdaq: MSHL) is the company developing phenoxodiol and has licensed rights to bring phenoxodiol to market globally from its parent company, Novogen Limited (ASX: NRT, Nasdaq: NVGN).

Results of the abovementioned trial (which involved 19 patients with late-stage, hormone- refractory prostate cancer) were presented September 15 at the International Conference on Molecular Diagnostics in Cancer Therapeutics (held September 12th to the 15th by the American Association of Cancer Research).

Read the full press release from Novogen.