An anti-diabetic drug shows hope for cancer

It is clear that in our world of today, Cancer is a major killer. Although Cancer has been with us throughout the history of mankind, it has become a leading cause of death only in the last century. Prior to 1990, most deaths were due to infectious diseases, such as pneumonia and tuberculosis and life expectancy was less than fifty years. Cancer was a rare disease that accounted for only a small percentage of deaths.

But now times have changed and cancer has gripped our world both quantitatively and qualitatively.So far, no cure for cancer has been found. Treatment of cancer in the initial stages can save the patient’s life but it cannot prevent it’s recurrence. Also, some cancers do not respond to treatments at all and end up killing the host. What the medical world requires is further research on the treatment of cancer as well as better and powerful therapies against cancer.

Recently PPAR Ligands have emerged as an effective therapy against cancer. PPAR stands for peroxisome proliferator activated receptor, and are a type of steroid hormone nuclear receptor acting as transcription factors. These have been implicated in a variety of human pathologies but so far their therapeutic use has been limited to the treatment of Type 2 Diabetes where drugs targeting PPAR-gamma are being used to control the diabetes.

For more than a decade, work on PPARs was driven by their important role in the regulation of cellular metabolism, PPAR in tissues known for high -oxidation rates such as liver, heart, muscle, and kidney, while PPAR was mainly studied for its adipogenic activity. At present, they are receiving growing attention for their involvement in the regulation of cell proliferation, death, and differentiation of both normal and malignant cells.