New Drugs Will Target Cancer Cell Immortality

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British scientists said Friday they were using computer models to develop anti-cancer drugs designed to stop malignant cells from dividing uncontrollably.

The drugs target an enzyme called telomerase -- the secret to cancer cell immortality. Telomerase is found in more than 80 percent of cancer cells, but is usually missing in healthy tissue.

"One of the most dangerous features of a cancer cell is its ability to divide and divide without ever reaching the end of its life span," Professor Stephen Neidle of the Institute of Cancer Research said in a statement.

"Telomerase is one of the key molecules responsible for this immortality, and if we can stop it from working, we can hopefully stop cancer progression too," he added.

Cancer develops when mutated or damaged cells do not self-destruct. They divide, upsetting the balance between healthy and deformed cells, and can go on to form tumors.

Chromosomes and genes control the mechanisms that cause cells to self-destruct. Telomerase, the so-called fountain of youth enzyme, helps cells live longer.

It extends the cell's life by preventing the ends of chromosomes that contain specialized repeated sequences of DNA from fraying each time the cell divides.

Without telomerase, the ends shorten with each cell division and when they are too short, the cell stops dividing. With it, they continue to thrive.

Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, Neidle, Dr. Lloyd Kelland and a team of scientists described how they were targeting telomerase to fight cancer.

"Using powerful computer-modeling techniques, we're designing a series of drugs which should, in theory at least, restart the clock on cancer by precisely and selectively combating the action of telomerase," said Kelland.

The drugs they are working on change the structure of the sequences at the end of chromosomes so telomerase cannot connect to it.

Some of the compounds have already...