A new clinical formulation extracted from a botanical may provide physicians with a new tool in treating aggressive late-stage breast cancer.
The oral anti-cancer drug BZL101, developed by Bionovo Inc., is derived from the Asian botanical herba Scutellaria Barbata. Bionovo researchers believe the herb's main agent has the ability to specifically identify and target malignant cells, leaving normal cells intact and healthy.
BZL101 works by eliciting a cancer cell's innate mechanism of self-suicide, or apoptosis. The drug selectively releases Apoptosis Inducing Factor-1 (AIF1) from a cancer cell's mitochondrial membrane. AIF then moves to the cell's nucleus, disintegrating the DNA structure, and fragmenting and killing the cancer cell.
Bionovo's scientists have shown that although AIF exists in all cells, this protein-translocation process can be elicited exclusively in cancer cells while avoiding normal cells. "In the cell, AIF is responsible for killing cells that don't perform their intended functions or cells that are not in their proper place such as cancer cells which lose functions through mutations and invade local and distant tissues," said Dr. Isaac Cohen, Bionovo's President and CEO.
Researchers at The University of California at San Francisco and the Komen/UT Southwestern Breast Cancer Research Program at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center recently completed a phase I study on BZL101. They reported favorable data from these trials at the 28th Annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.