Investigating the isoprenoid pathway as a novel target for cancer therapies. Important facts and potential methods of investigation:

Myeloma RPMI-8226 cells are cultured in 10% fetal bovine serum with other nutrients. Upon feeding the cells with media, three culture conditions will be tested along with some control groups. These treatment conditions include: lovastatin (statin), novel compound 138 and zoledronate (bisphosphonates). Studies have shown that both "statins" and "bisphosphonates" are capable of inhibiting specific processes which occur within the isoprenoid biosynthetic pathway. These studies have shown that lovastatin inhibits HMG-CoA Reductase, zoledronate inhibits the catalyzing of GPP to FPP and compound 138 inhibits the catalyzing of FPP to GGPP.