Medication That Treated Gonorrhea Could Help Fight Cancer

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine is placing many older medications under the microscope to see if they may have other functions than that in which they had once been marketed. One of these medications, acriflavine, was used in the 1930s for the treatment of gonorrhea.

Results suggest it may help in the fight against cancer. “The drug, acriflavine, used in the 1930s for treating gonorrhea, has turned out to have the previously unknown ability to halt the growth of new blood vessels. Preliminary tests showed that mice engineered to develop cancer had no tumor growth if treated with daily injections of acriflavine.”

Dr. Greg Semenza, Professor C. Michael Armstrong and the director of vascular program at the Johns Hopkins Institute for Cell Engineering explain that because cancer cells divide so quickly they require plenty of oxygen to fuel the growth of a tumor. The supply of oxygen demands many new blood vessels to carry the oxygen to the cancer cells so that the tumor may continue to grow.

“Acriflavine stops blood vessel growth by inhibiting the function of the protein hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-1”. If a cell is low on oxygen, HIF-1 will ensure genes are put to work to create new blood vessels to increase the flow of oxygen. Scientists in the study used a cell model to illustrate that when subunits of the HIF-1 would bind together it would cause the cell to light up. Next, over 3,000 drugs were tested until they found one, acriflavine, which turned the cell light out.

Professor Jun Liu hopes that some day this drug could be added to existing cancer treatments to prevent tumor growth so that more people win their battles with cancer.

“Hopkins is seeking even more new uses for old drugs. So far, drugs in the library have been screened for use against malaria, tuberculosis, HIV and the Ebola virus. In the future, Liu expects even more researchers to take advantage of the library, which is continuing to grow as more drugs are added to the collection.”

1930s Drug Slows Tumor Growth: Gonorrhea Medication Might Help Fight Cancer

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