OREANDA-NEWS Researchers from the Baylor College of Medicine and the Texas Children's Hospital have identified potent highly specific compounds that inhibit the development of cancer. BET BD1 inhibitors are a starting point in the development of more effective anti-cancer drugs with fewer side effects, according to an article published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The new approach to drug discovery has allowed scientists to simultaneously screen billions of compounds and accurately identify potent molecules that bind to proteins that have a bromodomain (BD). BD is a functional substructure of about 110 amino acids in size. During laboratory experiments with cells, the scientists concluded that the new BD1 inhibitors have some pronounced anti-leukemic activity.

BD containing proteins are associated with cancer, inflammation, infectious diseases, and metabolic disorders, so they have become potential drug targets for various diseases. BD inhibitors may help control cancer growth. However, during clinical trials, some of them had side effects and limited efficacy which halted further clinical development.

Now, the researchers are focused on identifying BD1 inhibitors in the BET protein family that are involved in cancer development.