Focus on Kinase Inhibitors
GPC Biotech has ongoing drug development and discovery programs that leverage its expertise in kinase inhibitors. Protein kinases represent a large family of proteins that play an important role in signaling between and within cells. The inhibition of distinct kinases can therefore modulate various biological processes, some of which are critically important in the development of cancer. Many of the more than 500 protein kinases encoded by the human genome have been implicated in tumor growth.
One reason that a cell can become cancerous is an uncontrolled growth signal. This signal is sent to the nucleus on a pathway of kinases. As a result, the cell starts to grow and divide in an uncontrolled manner, which can eventually lead to the growth of a tumor if the signal is activated inappropriately. Inhibiting a specific kinase involved in such a pathway, and thereby interrupting the internal tumor cell communication, can be an effective way to develop a new anticancer treatment. Indeed, in recent years several new anticancer drugs that act through the inhibition of kinases have been approved for marketing.
