Research study provides encouraging evidence in favor of SMAPs as potential anticancer drugs.

MIC Professor David Brautigan led one team of a multi-institutional project developing small molecule activators of protein phosphatase-2A , called SMAPs. The results were published on May 15, 2017 in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. (PMID 28504649) with an accompanying Commentary. These SMAPs are first-in-class drugs that activate PP2A, an enzyme tumor suppressor and inhibit the in vivo growth of tumor xenografts with mutated Ras. This collaborative project involved teams of investigators at UVA, Case Western Reserve University
and Mt. Sinai Medical Center, NY. Another application of these SMAPs is for prostate cancer, causing reduction of the levels of the androgen receptor, and a separate article has been accepted for publication in Cancer Research.