Preventing Side Effects: The p53 Gene Scientists studying the cancer-causing p53 gene at the University of Illinois at Chicago believe they have developed a drug that may protect against the toxic side effects of chemotherapy and radiation, including; nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, anemia, hair loss, and loss of appetite. The drug, pifithrin-alpha (p53 inhibitor), works by blocking the action of a gene called p53 that plays an important role in regulating the life cycle of cells. Because p53 is defective in many types of cancers, new drug therapies may work by replacing or reactivating broken p53 genes. Led by Dr. Andrei Gudkov, an associate professor of molecular genetics, the researchers found that when the activity of the p53 protein in normal cells was briefly blocked during exposure to cancer therapies (in essence, mimicking the action that can cause cancer), the cells acted as if they were impervious to the potentially toxic effects of treatment. In animal experiments, results showed that injections of pifithrin-alpha protected mice from radiation levels that would normally kill 60% of mice tested. The treated mice exposed to radiation also lost less weight than animals not treated by the drug, and none of the treated animals developed tumors. Human testing may begin as early as next year. If the drug proves as effective in humans, researchers believe that they will have produced a medicine that could be an important adjunct to a variety of treatments.
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