Principles of selective Toxicity Flashcards
What criteria must be met to target cells with therapeutic agents?
- difference between the biochemistry of host tissues (body tissue) and infectious agents (microbes)
- difference between normal and cancer cells
- drugs being used must have a high degree of discrimination
(high ratio of effects to toxic effects)
What does a cell need in order to become cancerous?
mutation
alterations
What are the hallmarks of cancer?
- sustained proliferative signalling (signals to divide shouldnt stop)
- cells resist cell death
- cess should be able to induce angiogenesis (a blood supply to itself)
- cell must be able to evade chemicals that suppress growth
- cell must be able to activate invasion and metastasis
What are the aims of cancer therapy?
eradicate the disease
induce remission (period where disease is gone, but it does come back)
control the symptoms of cancer
Cancer therapy is selective. What does this mean?
mainly only selective to cancer cells bc= high cell division rate
to achieve this selectivity= look at cellular, biochemical and molecular differences between cancer cells and healthy cells
Why are drugs combined?
to reduce dosage of a single drug (that could cause side effects)
What is a problem with drug combination?
can lead to drug drug interactions
cause side effects
this can reduce patient compliance
What is the criteria to combine drugs?
- drugs that are combined must be active when used alone
- the drugs that are combined must all have different mechanisms of action
- the drugs that are combined must have different toxicity profiles
- the drug doses should be close to their maximum tolerated levels
What considerations need to be taken into account when using chemotherapy?
drug require hepatic metabolite activation?
patient nil by mouth?
Which drug needs hepatic metabolite activation?
- cyclophophamide needs p450 enzyme activation
- drug needs to be metabolized to phosphoramide mustard which is the active agent
What is a nanoparticle delivery system?
deliver drug to cancer cells without being toxic to body cells
What do you have to think about with nanoparticly delivery?
- drug cannot be released or degraded prematurely
- must have a stable structure that can effectively and efficiently deliver the drug
What is a side effect of combination therapy?
myelosuppression (bone marrow is suppressed)
What do cytotoxic drugs do?
kill cells
- active against cycling/proliferating cells (cells that are quickly proliferating and dividing)
Where do cytotoxic drugs act?
- drugs may be phase specific (affect certain parts of the cell cycle)
- drugs may be cycle specific (affect cells cycling throughout the cell cycle)
- drugs may affect DNA synthesis
What do cancer drugs not affect?
have less activity on non-dividing cells
in G0 phase (most of normal body cells)
Where are the checkpoints of the cell cycle?
- between G1 and S
2. between S and G2
What is an example of an alkylating agent for cancer therapy?
cycle specific
attack cell throughout cell cycle
e.g.
cisplatin
What does cisplatin form?
highly reactive carbonium ions (C+)
What do carbonium ions do?
transfer alkyle groups to nucleophilic sites on the DNA by covalent bonding
The movement of alkyle groups causes what on cells?
DNA cross linking
abnormal base pairing
DNA strand breakages
RNA and protein damage
these: reduce the capacity of the cell to make proteins, and if the cell cannot make proteins, it will die
What is the therapeutic index of cancer drugs?
normally at best= 1
- the conc of druf that causes toxicity=the conce of druf that causes cancer cell death
wider the therapeutic index of a drug, the better
Why do cancer drugs cause side effects?
bc it targets dividing cells
and most of the body cells are dividing
but there is selectivity for fast dividing cells (tumours)
What do cancer cells need to grow for DNA metabolism?
cofactors
provided by folic acid
What is folic acid needed for?
DNA metabolism
all cells need it but bc cancer cells divide faster, they need more
What is the folate pathway?
humans usually get folic acid from the diet
however some cancer cells can produce their own folic acid with the help of enzymes such as dihydropteroate synthetase and dihydrofolate reductase (no need to know enzymes)
DIET—-(DIHYDROPTEROATE SYNTHETASE)—DIHYDROFOLIC ACID—-(DIHYDROFOLATE REDUCTASE)—-TETRAHYDROFOLIC ACID—FOLIC ACID