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Two studies were presented at “Molecular Targets as well as Cancer Therapeutics” in Boston, Massachusetts that highlighted the mu opiate receptor as a potential therapeutic topic. This was a joint meeting of the National Cancer Institute, the American Association for Cancer Research as well as the European Organization for Research as well as Treatment of Cancer. The mu opiate receptor is where morphine works, a painkiller commonly used to treat chronic cancer pain. Several years ago, a drug called methylnaltrexone (MNTX) was found to block morphine from crossing the brain barrier without interfering with pain relief, as well as a study published in February 2009 indicated that patients who took MNTX lived longer than expected. This led to further research. In the two studies that were presented in Boston, the researchers focused on the mu opiate receptor as it related to regulation of tumor growth as well as metastasis as well as examined how MNTX can attenuate the effects. Using bronchioloalveolar carcinoma cells in a cell culture model, one study found that MNTX prevented tumor cell proliferation as well as migration as well as blocked oncogenic signaling. The other study looked at Lewis lung carcinoma cells in mice. Mice without the mu opiate receptor didn’t develop tumors when injected with the cancer cells, but common mice did. The researchers as well as found that the take of MNTX reduced the proliferation of cancer cells in common mice by 90 percent. The authors of the subordinate study concluded that the mu opioid receptor promoted tumor growth, angiogenesis as well as metastasis of Lewis lung cancer in mice, as well as that MNTX attenuated these effects. It is substantial to note that these findings possess not yet been proven in human clinical trials, only in cell culture studies as well as in mice. Incase they are confirmed clinically, the take of opioid antagonists similar MNTX may become more substantial in the treatment of cancer pain. For the filled story, go to Science Daily. |