Process Reengineering

AskDrYou.com Another step forward with Interleukin-6 was made by a biophysicist who decided to use a supercomputer to search thousands of molecular combinations. He is searching for the best configuration to block a small protein molecule (Interleukin-6) that is known to play a role in causing both breast and prostate cancer. Chenglong Li, Ph.D., a professor in the medical chemistry and pharmacology department at Ohio State University, will use this configuration to develop a drug to block Interleukin-6. Interleukin-6 is not all bad, however. It acts as an immune-response messenger that helps us fight infections, recover from burns, traumatic injuries, and other types of similar trauma to the body. But, in people who have cancer, their bodies fail to turn off this response and overproduce Interleukin-6. In this particular study, Interleukin-6 levels in women with various types of cancer were consistently up to 40-fold times the norm, especially women in later stage breast cancer or those who had metastatic or recurrent disease. So Dr. Li is trying to disrupt the cellular messages that trigger Interleukin-6 into action, by using a fragment-based drug design. In the report he says that, “There is an inherent connection between inflammation and cancer.” So he is using combinations of three proteins to form a six-sided molecular complex, called a “hexamer” to interrupt the transmission of signals that incite the production of Interleukin-6. His finding builds on a 2002 study …
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