{"id":723,"date":"2014-10-02T08:50:00","date_gmt":"2014-10-02T08:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/biosciences\/?p=723"},"modified":"2014-10-02T08:50:00","modified_gmt":"2014-10-02T08:50:00","slug":"research-seminar-mdm2p53-inhibitors-a-novel-targeted-treatment-for-neuroblastoma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/biosciences\/2014\/10\/02\/research-seminar-mdm2p53-inhibitors-a-novel-targeted-treatment-for-neuroblastoma\/","title":{"rendered":"Research Seminar: MDM2\/p53 inhibitors: A novel targeted treatment for Neuroblastoma."},"content":{"rendered":"

Professor Deborah Tweddle, Newcastle Biomedicine, Newcastle University Wednesday 8th October, 4.00 p.m., Jennison Lecture Theatre<\/strong><\/p>\n

Neuroblastoma is one of the most difficult childhood cancers to cure. Around 50% of all cases have high risk disease (metastatic disease in a child over the age of 18 months or MYCN <\/i>amplified disease) and < 50% of these will be long term survivors. New targeted, less toxic treatments and a better understanding of drug resistance are needed before these survival figures can significantly improve.<\/p>\n

One targeted treatment which is currently undergoing clinical development are MDM2\/p53 inhibitors which target the interaction between the p53 tumour suppressor protein and its negative regulator MDM2 so increasing p53 levels and leading to tumour cell death.<\/p>\n

We have been investigating the role of p53 in neuroblastoma for many years and have reported predominantly upstream defects of the p53 pathway making MDM2\/p53 inhibitors a suitable potential novel therapy for neuroblastoma. In this talk I will describe our pre-clinical studies with novel MDM2 inhibitors in neuroblastoma in addition to the well-studied Nutlin compounds and the potential clinical uses of these agents.<\/p>\n