
An experimental RNA-based drug acts by using genetic material
called targeting RNA, to enter cancer cells, and another type, called
silencing RNA , to stop the expression of a protein that keeps the cells
alive, thereby destroying prostate cancer cells leaving normal cells
unharmed.
The drug, developed at Duke University Medical Center, uses one type of
genetic material, called In tests in mice with prostate cancer, the drug
shrank the size of their tumors by half, while the tumors in control mice
that did not receive the drug continued to grow, said study co-author Bruce
Sullenger, Ph.D., director of Duke's Translational Research Institute and
chief of the Division of Experimental Surgery.
The mice showed no side effects from the treatment, Sullenger said.
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