 |
|
DAILY NEWS AND INFORMATION
FOR THE GLOBAL GRID COMMUNITY / JULY 7, 2003: VOL. 2 NO. 27
|
Special Features:
GRID COMPUTING FINDS CANCER GROWTH
INHIBITORS
Find-a-Drug is pleased to announce that the preliminary results of its
Cancer
Internet project have exceeded all expectations. By using the spare computer
time of thousands of PCs connected to the Internet to form a large
supercomputer, Find-a-Drug has been able to evaluate the potential of more
than 0.5 billion molecules and produce a set of molecules that are predicted
to inhibit the growth of various types of cancer cell. Scientists at the US
National Cancer Institute have tested the abilities of a small number of
molecules from the set as part of their Developmental Therapeutics
Program.
"We had expected that only 2-3% of the molecules predicted to inhibit
cancer
cell growth would be observed to do so in the laboratory" commented Keith
Davies, Scientific Director of Find-a-Drug. "In this study, 7 of the 39
molecules tested showed the desired anti-cancer properties".
These results relate to two proteins: RAS, which has been described by
David
Kerr, Professor of Oncology at of Oxford University as the "single access
gate" for signalling cell development; and VEGFr which plays a key-role in the
development of new blood vessels. Previous attempts to find RAS inhibitors
have been less successful, but there are some VEGFr inhibitors in clinical
trials. VEGFr is a very attractive protein to target because inhibiting the
development of new blood vessels would be a valuable treatment for most solid
tumours including breast, colon and renal cancers. VEGFr inhibitors may also
be a viable alternative to chemotherapy following surgery with fewer side-
effects.
Find-a-Drug hopes to test more molecules in the laboratory later this year
before making any decisions about which molecules are worthy of further
research. Alternative protein targets will also be evaluated to increase the
number of molecules which are predicted to have anti-cancer properties. It is
hoped that choosing from a larger number of molecules will help to avoid drug
failures during clinical trials.
The project has so far used over 250 years of computer time, and has
involved
over 8,000 PCs around the world. Each PC is running a copy of the THINK
software in the background which does not affect normal use of the PC. All
data transferred between the PCs and the Find-a-Drug Internet servers are
encrypted. This is a necessary and valuable precaution to prevent the
introduction of a harmful agent such as a virus on to the computers. PC owners
may participate in the project by downloading the THINK software and molecules
from www.find-a-drug.org. Once installed, the software does not require any
interaction by the owner.
To participate visit www.find-a-drug.org.
About Find-a-Drug
Find-a-Drug was set up in 2002 by Treweren Consultants (Evesham, UK) as a
non-
profit organisation using Internet-based computing for drug discovery. In
addition to Cancer, Find-a-Drug is examining some Multiple Sclerosis, Plague
and SARS protein targets. The cancer project continues the work started in
collaboration with United Devices (Austin, Texas) and Oxford University in
2001. At present, over 8,000 PCs from nearly 60 countries have registered with
Find-a-Drug.
|