Researchers discover cancer-fighting properties of blood pressure drug

Researchers have accidentally discovered cancer-fighting properties in a drug typically used to treat high blood pressure.

The drug carvedilol could provide sun-induced cell damage that led to skin cancer, according to the findings.

"What began as an experimental error led to a very interesting scientific discovery," said co-leader of the research team Ying Huang from Western University of Health Sciences College of Pharmacy, California, US, IANS reported.

"Our research could lead to the development of a class of new cancer-preventive agents," Huang said.

The findings would be presented at the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics annual meeting during the Experimental Biology 2017 meeting being held from 22-26 April in Chicago.

The accidental discovery of the drug's cancer-fighting properties happened when a former graduate student in Huang's lab was studying whether carvedilol and similar beta blockers might up the risk of cancer.

The student inadvertently tested the drug's anti-cancer effect instead of testing whether it promoted cancer. The student found that carvedilol surprisingly showed some protective effects against skin cancer.

The researchers then conducted experiments with cell cultures and mice to see whether carvedilol could exercise a protective effect on skin cancer caused by ultraviolet-B (UVB), the portion of sunlight that tended to damage the skin's top epidermal layers and played a key role in skin cancer development.

Their research revealed that carvedilol exhibited a protective effect in cultured mouse skin cells exposed to UVB and in hairless mice administered the drug after UVB exposure.

Hairless mice exposed to UVB and given carvedilol showed decreases in both the severity and number of tumours that developed as against those not given carvedilol.