Fungal chemicals kill cancer cells

Fungal chemicals kill cancer cells


(NaturalNews) A family of chemicals naturally produced by fungi are
phenomenally effective at killing human cancer cells, according to a
study conducted by researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and published in the journal Chemical Science.

"What
was particularly exciting to us was to see, across various cancer cell
lines, that some of them are quite potent," lead researcher Mohammad
Movassaghi said.

The study was funded by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences.

Researchers
have known for some time that a fungal chemical known as
11,11'-dideoxyverticillin demonstrates cancer fighting properties, but
the chemical occurs in such small quantities that it was impossible to
test its potency. Then a few years ago, MIT scientists successfully
synthesized the chemical in the lab.

11,11'-dideoxyverticillin is
just one of a family a fungal chemicals known as
epipolythiodiketopiperazine (ETP) alkaloids. Scientists believe that
fungi use ETP alkaloids to prevent other organisms from moving into the
territory where they are living. In the new study, the researchers
artificially synthesized 60 different ETP alkaloids and related
chemicals in order to test them against different cancer lines.

"There's
a lot of data out there, very exciting data, but one thing we were
interested in doing is taking a large panel of these compounds, and for
the first time, evaluating them in a uniform manner," Movassaghi said.

Alkaloids target cancer cells, ignore healthy ones

The
researchers tested each of the 60 compounds against both lymphoma and
cervical cancer, then took the 25 most effective chemicals and further
tested them against breast, kidney and lung cancers. They found that the
cancer-fighting chemicals were 1,000 times more likely to kill a cancer cell than they were to kill a healthy cell.

Because
the scientists had manufactured all 60 chemicals by systematically
varying specific parts of their underlying chemical structure, they were
then able to isolate the chemical properties that make these fungal compounds most effective against cancer.

For
example, the researchers found that two ETP molecules joined together
were more effective than solitary ETP molecules, and that compounds
containing two sulfur atoms were more effective than those containing
fewer.

Significantly, the researchers were also able to identify
portions of the fungal molecules that can be changed without producing
any reduction in cancer-fighting effectiveness. This may help scientists
turn the naturally occurring ETPs into more potent anti-cancer drugs,
by replacing these "neutral" sections of the molecule with antibodies or
other molecules designed to specifically deliver the ETP to a cancer
cell.

The researchers now plan to use their findings to develop more precise cancer-fighting ETPs.

"We
can go in with far greater precision and test the hypotheses we're
developing in terms of what portions of the molecules are most
significant at retaining or enhancing biological activity," Movassaghi
said.

Numerous drugs currently on the market have been derived
from fungi. The most famous of these is penicillin, the first modern
antibiotic, which was derived in 1929 from a species of mold known as
Penicillium rubens.

Source:-
http://www.naturalnews.com/039537_alkaloids_cancer_cells_fungi.html