BioCentury
ARTICLE | Distillery Therapeutics

Cancer

October 11, 2018 10:59 PM UTC

Cell culture and mouse studies suggest the generic antibiotic nifuroxazide could help treat melanoma. In two human metastatic melanoma cell lines, nifuroxazide plus the BRAF inhibitor Zelboraf vemurafenib and the MEK inhibitor Mekinist trametinib decreased cell numbers compared with the combination of the two inhibitors. In a xenograft mouse model of melanoma, nifuroxazide decreased tumor growth compared with vehicle. In mice injected with tumor cells from the xenograft model, cells from nifuroxazide-treated tumors resulted in lower levels of tumorigenesis than cells from vehicle-treated tumors. Next steps could include identifying the molecular target of nifuroxazide in melanoma and testing the antibiotic in melanoma patients.

Daiichi Sankyo Co. Ltd., Chugai Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. and the Genentech Inc. unit of Roche market Zelboraf to treat unresectable or metastatic melanoma...