Scientists in the UK have moved a step closer to understanding how ibuprofen could help treat cancer. The findings could lead to the drug being used as a preventative treatment for prostate cancer, in the future.
Ibuprofen – a common painkiller – can help reduce the risk of prostate cancer, but the mechanism by which it inhibits tumour cells is still not fully understood. Now, Matthew Lloyd and his team from the University of Bath in the UK, in collaboration with Cancer Research UK, have uncovered a mechanism suggesting that the chiral inversion of ibuprofen inhibits the activity of the protein alpha-methylacyl-CoA racemase (AMACR), levels of which are increased in the presence of prostate, some colon and other cancers.
To find out more, read the full news story in Chemistry World and download Lloyd’s ChemComm communication.
