The God Molecule? Ariad Registers New Patent

On September 25th, "Patentscope" published information on an Ariad application (filed in March of this year) for  a new molecule which functions as a choline kinase inhibitor. Patent The over expression of Choline Kinase has been associated with at least five types of cancers, which are summarized below.  We look forward to hearing more from Ariad about this new molecule, and its potential for treating many, many patients battling a variety of cancers.   

Stay tuned. 

Source for Choline Kinase data

Entity	Breast carcinoma
Oncogenesis	Normal and tumoral tissues from patients with breast carcinomas were analysed for ChoKα activity and expression. ChoKα activity was increased in 38.5% of tumoral tissues, whereas ChoKα over-expression determined by WB analysis was found in 17% of the 53 samples analysed (Ramirez de Molina et al, 2002).
Entity	Ovarian carcinoma
Oncogenesis	Choline Kinase activity in human epithelial ovarian carcinoma cells (EOC) was 12- to 24-fold higher when compared with normal or immortalized ovary epithelial cells (EONT) (Iorio et al, 2005).
Entity	Lung cancer
Oncogenesis	ChoKα mRNA levels were increased in lung tumour cell lines in comparison with human primary bronchial epithelial cells (BEC). This increase was higher in small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) than in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Moreover, protein levels and ChoK enzymatic activity were also increased in tumour cells (Ramirez de Molina et al, 2007). When analysing tissues from patients with NSCLC, ChoKα over-expression was also observed with an incidence of 50%. Furthermore, patients with NSCLC with ChoKα over-expression had worse disease free and overall survival than those patients with normal levels of the enzyme (Ramirez de Molina et al, 2007).
Entity	Colorectal cancer
Oncogenesis	Both ChoKα activity and PCho levels were increased in colon cancer and adenocarcinoma tissues when compared with normal tissue. PCho levels in colon cancers were about 1.5 times higher than in normal colon tissue, whereas ChoK activity was 3.7 times higher in tumoral tissues with respect to normal ones (Nakagami et al, 1999).
Entity	Prostate cancer
Oncogenesis	Increased ChoKα was found in 48% tumoral prostate tissues when compared with their normal counterparts (Ramirez de Molina et al, 2002).