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Biotech / Medical : Sugen (SUGN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Miljenko Zuanic who wrote (475)	6/13/1999 3:31:00 PM
From: John McCarthy	Respond to of 550

Miljenko .... I do apologize. I drew a wrong conclusion. Next time, I should read first .... then post. Again, I do apologize to everyone for getting you off track on this. regards, John McCarthy

To: Miljenko Zuanic who wrote (475)	6/13/1999 6:20:00 PM
From: gao seng	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 550

Light-Activated Chemotherapy Moves One Step Closer Medicines, such as the important metal complex cisplatin, that doctors employ in the battle against cancer often attack more than the tumor. Their side effects -- for example loss of hair and lack of appetite -- come from the fact that the active agents indiscriminately attack all fast-growing cells in the body. One solution could be medications that are targeted to act only on the tumor. One way to achieve this is to create medications that are only activated by light once they are "on the spot." A team working with Edinburgh chemist Peter J. Sadler has now introduced a chemical compound that works like cisplatin, but only if it is first "triggered" by light. Their results were reported in Monday's edition of Angewandte Chemie International Edition. The idea of controlling the attack of agents on tumors using light is not new. There are already substances that transfer the energy from light, which is channeled to the tumor through glass fibers, to the oxygen molecules present in small quantities in the cell. Activated in this manner, these then destroy the DNA of the illuminated cell. The agent cisplatin works in a different way: it binds tightly to the DNA and prevents the cell from reading the genetic information stored in its DNA molecule -- but unfortunately, this doesn't only take place in tumors. Here is where the new variant of cisplatin, which Sadler and his co-workers have prepared, puts things right: it consists of a compound of platinum that releases a cisplatin-like compound only when irradiated with light. This compound then settles, as shown by trial experiments, into the DNA in a fashion similar to the known agent. Advantage of the new substance: it doesn't require oxygen for selective reaction. In addition, in contrast to cisplatin, it docks in two places on the DNA when irradiated, giving the tumor cell less opportunity to gear up against the treatment. Sadler and his team have also found possibilities for controlling the activity of the agent: depending on the composition of some of the groups of atoms bound by the cisplatin, the tumor "poison" is activated more slowly or quickly when irradiated. Sadler hopes to get rid of one of the remaining disadvantages of his compound in the same way: presently, the substance is so reactive that it would also destroy other molecules in healthy cells. [Contact: Prof. P.J. Sadler] unisci.com from may 18. 1999. any ideas on if this is qlti mrvt et al, which are supposedly using lscp lasers.