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Anticancer drugs

New approaches to anti-androgen activities

Nature Reviews Drug Discovery volume 8, pages 452–453 (2009)Cite this article

Competitive androgen receptor antagonists are used to treat prostate cancer but, even in the presence of such drugs, overexpression of androgen receptors can drive cellular proliferation, leading to a more aggressive form of the disease. Now, two papers highlight new ways of inhibiting androgen receptor function that could overcome such resistance problems.

Next, the authors determined the anti-androgen activity of pyrvinium pamoate in vivo. Combining the compound with bicalutamide, a competitive androgen receptor antagonist that is used clinically, caused a 63% reduction in prostate weight in mice. This was similar to the reduction observed in the castrated control group, suggesting that combination treatment could be a new strategy to inhibit androgen receptor activity.

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPERS

  1. Jones, J. O. et al. Non-competitive androgen receptor inhibition in vitro and in vivo. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 106, 7233–7238 (2009)

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  2. Tran, C. et al. Development of a second-generation anti-androgen for treatment of advanced prostate cancer. Science 324, 787–790 (2009)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

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Authors
  1. Charlotte Harrison
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Harrison, C. New approaches to anti-androgen activities. Nat Rev Drug Discov 8, 452–453 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrd2903

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrd2903

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