Its 'Eureka!' Again: New Drug Protects Healthy Cells from Radiation Exposure

Some of the most devastating and painful side effects are those arising out of exposure to radiation in any form. Radiation therapy, while being successful in the treatment of cancer in many cases, has always had the bugbear of ‘horrible side effects’ attached to it. Now, one scientist says all that may change with the new drug he created to combat side effects of radiation exposure.

The scientist in question is Andrei Gudkov. Affiliated with the Rosewell Park Cancer Institute, Gudkov is the man behind the new drug codenamed CBLB502, a drug that prevents radiation exposure from causing damage to healthy cells and also destroys malignant cancer cells.

Speaking about the new drug, Gudkov said he had what he called ‘a Eureka moment’ while working on developing the drug. That was when he decided to use the concept of cellular suicide, or apoptosis, as one of the principles on which the new drug functioned.

Generally, healthy cells show a tendency to self-destruct when exposed to even minimal doses of radiation, while the malignant cells tend to try and stop apoptosis from happening. One of the mechanisms the cancerous cells use to stop apoptosis is by activating nuclear factor-KappaB or NFKB.

In his new drug, Gudkov adopted the same strategy of apoptosis that the cancerous cells used. They used flagellin to activate the NFKB pathway. Flagellin is a bacteria-based protein found in the gastrointestinal tract.

Along with his team, Gudkov then used the new drug with flagellin on rhesus monkeys and mice. Next, they exposed the animals to large doses of radiation, as can be expected in the case of a nuclear incident. The exposure to radiation was done 15 minutes to an hour after the animals were given the flagellin-based drug.

The results of the test were nothing short of sensational. The cancer cells got destroyed, and the healthy cells remained intact, with no side effects at all. The research also showed that the protection that healthy cells received was higher if the dosage was given before the radiation exposure, while the survival rates increased when the dosage was given an hour after radiation exposure.

Confident about his new drug, Gudkov has now started a company, called Cleveland Biolabs, Inc., to make sure the new drug reaches the market.