摘要 |
Cancer cells are blocked from entering differentiation pathways because of abnormal methylation enzymes, which are responsible for keeping cancer cells in cycling state. Effective differentiation inducers are those capable of acting directly or indirectly to convert abnormal methylation enzymes into normal enzymes, thereby enabling cancer cells to undergo terminal differentiation. Differentiation employing inducer alone often can not reach completion because of the damage created by the inducer. Such damage can be prevented if differentiation is induced in the presence of helper inducers, which are basically inhibitors of the component enzymes of methylation. Thus, differentiation induced in the presence of helper inducers is more likely to reach completion. Therefore, helper inducers are essential components of differentiation therapy, not just merely to potentiate the activity of differentiation inducers. The present inventors discover that alkyl phenylacetamides, alkyl phenylacetate, 2,4-dichlorophenylacetate, and indole acetate are potent helper inducers.
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