PARP Inhibitor Therapy

PARP inhibitor therapy is the use of a class of drugs called PARP inhibitors, pharmacological inhibitors of the enzyme poly ADP ribose polymerase, which plays a role in repairing DNA in damaged cells. By blocking this DNA repair pathway, PARP inhibitors are used to treat certain heritable cancers, particularly platinum sensitive ovarian cancer, exploiting the reduced ability of cancer cells that already carry other DNA repair defects to survive when a second repair pathway is also blocked. Research has also explored potential uses of PARP inhibitors beyond cancer, including in acute conditions such as stroke and heart attack and in degenerative neurological diseases.