The combination of a diabetes drug and an antihypertensive drug can effectively fight cancer cells, according to the researchers. results of a study published in the medical journal Science Advances.
The metformin is a medicine prescribed for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes. Besides its hypoglycemic effect, it also has anti-cancer properties. The usual therapeutic dose, however, is too low to effectively fight cancer. But the research team led by Professor Michael Hall of the University of Basel in Switzerland made an unexpected discovery: the drug antihypertensive syrosingopine potentiates the anticancer efficacy of metformin. Apparently, this combination of drugs causes cancer cells to program their “suicide”.
This drug cocktail kills tumor cells
At higher doses, the anti-diabetic drug inhibits the growth of cancer cells but can also induce unwanted side effects. Therefore, researchers have looked at more than a thousand drugs to find out if they can improve the anticancer action of the metformin. One of the favorites emerged from this screening: syrosingopine, an antihypertensive drug. As the study shows, the cocktail of these two drugs is believed to be effective for a wide range of cancers.
“For example, in samples from patients with leukemia, we have shown that almost all tumor cells were killed by this cocktail and at doses that are not really toxic to normal cells, “says Don Benjamin.” And the effect was exclusively limited to cancer cells. Likewise, blood cells from healthy donors were unresponsive to treatment. “
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