Drug disrupts tumor cell division.

• Position: Cancer Therapy - Brief article

A previously known but little studied chemical compound targets and shuts down a common cancer process, reveal scientists at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md. In studies of laboratory-grown human tumor cell lines, the drug disrupted tumor cell division and prevented growth of advanced cancer cells.

Marikki Laiho and her colleagues say their work focused on the ability of a chemical dubbed BMH-21 to sabotage the transcription pathway RNA Polymerase pathway (POL I), shutting down the ability of mutant cancer genes to communicate with cells and replicate.

Laiho's research linked the pathway to p53 gene activity; p53 is a tumor suppressor gene, a protein that regulates cell growth, and it is the most frequently mutated suppressor gene in cancer.

Transcription pathways are the means by which certain proteins that direct cell division are put into action by cells. Uncontrolled cell division is a hallmark of cancer, and BMH-21 has demonstrated an ability to bind to the DNA of cancer cells and completely shut down this transcription pathway.

"Without this transcription...