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Foreign cancer experts refute the claims of a team of Israeli researchers who claim to have developed a concept that will pave the way for a cure for cancer, an American expert ignoring it as "probably another among a long line of false, irresponsible and ultimate ". false cruel promises for cancer patients. "
The CEO of the company behind the research told The Times of Israel Tuesday that he had not published his research in medical journals, which is the norm because he "did not can not afford to 'do it, but that the results of its pre clinical trials have been' very good '. Several Israeli experts contacted by the Times of Israel declined to comment on this claim, some precisely because they did not know the research.
"We are working on a comprehensive cancer treatment," said Ilan Morad, CEO and founder of the Nes Ziona-based startup, Accelerated Evolution Biotechnologies Ltd. (AEBi), in an interview with the Times of Israel on Tuesday, echoing the company's Jerusalem Post earlier this week. "We still have a long way to go, but we believe that we will have a cure for all types of cancer patients and with very few side effects."
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Morad added that "within a year or two", the company could start treating patients in clinical trials that it hopes to undertake if it raises funds. The family of molecules that she has developed, which are at the heart of her obvious pathway to care, has been tested in Israeli preclinical trials on human cancer cells in the laboratory and on mice, Morad said. cancers such as lung cancer, colon cancer and head and neck cancers.
Illustrative picture of a patient with cancer under chemotherapy (www.shutterstock.com)
Several hospitals and experts in Israel declined to comment on the claims, with some noting that they did not have any direct information on the research. Other experts abroad have issued severe warnings about the researchers' claims.
Dr. Leonard Lichtenfeld, deputy chief physician of the National Office of the American Cancer Society, said Tuesday that Israeli scientists had been working "with an interesting approach to prevent cancer cells from functioning," their researches have "apparently not published in the scientific literature where it would be subject to review, support and / or criticism by knowledgeable peers. "
"We all hope that a cure for cancer can be found quickly. It is certainly possible that this approach is a job, "he wrote in a blog post titled" A cure for cancer? Not so fast. "
"However, as experience has taught us time and time again, the gap between a successful mouse experiment and the effective and beneficial application of exciting laboratory concepts to help patients with Alzheimer's disease." cancer at the bedside is in fact a long and painful journey, sowing unforeseen and unforeseen obstacles. . "
"It will probably take some time to demonstrate the benefits of this new approach to cancer treatment. And unfortunately, based on other similar claims of advanced technologies for the treatment of cancer, there is a good chance that it will not succeed. "
Lichtenfeld added: "We hope that this approach will bear fruit and be successful. At the same time, we must always caution that the process of getting this treatment from the mouse to the man is not always a simple and uncomplicated journey. "
Dr. Ben Neel, director of the Perlmutter Cancer Center at NYU Langone Health, told the New York Post that "cancer is a multiple disease and that it is highly unlikely that this company has found a" cure "for cancer, no more than one. to cure infections. "
He said that "more likely, this statement is yet another among a long line of false, spurious, irresponsible and ultimately cruel false promises for cancer patients."
Publish or … search?
Morad said that the AEBi team chooses to use its meager resources to do more research rather than publish its research in medical journals
The company wants to focus on "advancing the research and development of more targeting peptides. It takes a lot of work and we are a small company, "he told the Times of Israel. "We can not afford it. Posting an article takes a lot of effort and a lot of money, which we can not afford.
He added, "If we were a big company with a lot of money, that would be the first thing to do. If I have $ 100,000, what do I spend it on? He asked. "Advancing research and finding more and more targeting peptides, or doing many experiments to write an article? What would you do if you had to choose?
In the conventional development process, medical researchers who make a discovery collect their papers and submit them to legitimate medical journal articles, in the hope that the editorial boards of journals validate their findings and publish these findings. The greater the prestige of the publication, the greater the apparent value of the discovery. Researchers do not have to pay for legitimate medical journals to publish their results.
An octopus armed with peptides
The drug that the company hopes to develop "will be a personalized medicine that will be tailored to the specific cancers of each patient," said Morad. "Every person will receive the medicine for their specific cancer."
The treatment, called by the firm MuTaTo (multi-target toxin), is a family of molecules armed with peptides capable of interacting with a wide variety of proteins expressed by cancer cells. Rather than targeting a single type of protein, the molecules have the ability to target multiple proteins at the same time, said Morad. "We are creating a multiple attack on cancer," he said.
"Think of the arms of an octopus," he explained. "The octopus in this case is the molecule, and at the end of each arm, there are peptides that interact with proteins and inhibit their action." This interaction allows the "toxic peptides" attached to many octopus arms to enter the cancer cell. and destroy it from the inside.
According to Morad, the results of the preclinical trials are "very good", showing that the molecules have the capacity to kill cancer cells, targeting them only, and not in healthy cells. "The effect is specific to cancer cells, leaving aside other non-cancer cells, so side effects will be much less important. It will have side effects at the level of ibuprofen or a common aspirin. "
The company is patenting the concept, he said. The funding to date comes from private investors.
Morad founded AEBi in 2000, after working as a researcher at Peptor Ltd., a Rehovot-based biopharmaceutical company, which in 2003 received the green light for a merger with the German biopharmaceutical company DeveloGen. Dan Aridor, chairman of the board, who specializes in finance at Columbia Business School, is also part of the team, according to the company's website.
The third member mentioned on the website is Hanan Itzhaki, the director of operations of the company. Itzhaki has worked in this company since 2002, after working at InSight Pharmaceutical Ltd. of Rehovot. He held a postdoctoral position at the Horticulture Department of Purdue University, in Indiana, and holds a PhD from the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of New York. Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Morad said the team is now focused on advancing research and getting to clinical trials as quickly as possible.
The US Food & Drug Administration defines drug development and treatment procedures as follows: "Before a drug can be tested on people, the drug manufacturer or sponsor carries out laboratory and animal tests to determine its operation. be safe and work well in the home. Then a series of tests on people is started to determine if the drug is safe when it is used to treat an illness and if it brings a real benefit to health. "
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