The drug has attracted intense interest because it is one of the first compounds aiming to block protein clumps called amyloid from accumulating in the brains of Alzheimer's patients.
This was controversial at first, but Slamon persuaded Genentech to test a monoclonal antibody that would block this protein.
He foresaw a new weapon against cancer--block the protein and tumors may be unable to proliferate--but the finding was so obscure that even his boss was skeptical.
Protein acts like a building block for your muscles and skin and organs.
But more recently outside researchers have argued that it may block a second protein that is pivotal to the way cholesterol is moved in and out of cells.
Bristol-Myers originally designed dasatinib to block a mutant protein in other tumors, but in 2001 company pharmacologist Francis Lee noticed that it was hundreds of times more potent than Gleevec in blocking the CML cell growth.
In the mid-1990s Vertex chemists crafted compounds that block a key kinase protein that unleashes toxic immune-system molecules in arthritic joints.
In the 1980s doctors began experimenting with ACE inhibitors because of their ability to block angiotensin, a protein long thought to cause inflammation.
It appears to block the action of a protein called Stat 1, which becomes activated within cells after a stressful event such as a heart attack or stroke, and plays a role in inducing cell death.
Both Sugen and Genentech are rushing to conduct final-stage human testing of drugs that block the action of a key protein, called VEGF.
Medicines like Gleevec or AstraZeneca 's (nasdaq: AZN - news - people ) Iressa are generally developed by looking at a protein that is known to be involved in cancer and designing a drug to block it.
Analysis of the brains of the euthanized rats revealed decreased levels of Fos, a protein marker of neuronal activity, in the amygdala region of the brain while the olfactory signals appeared to block fear responses.
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