Posted on 01/09/2018 12:14:48 PM PST by Red Badger
Representation of the organic-osmium compound, which is triggered using a non-toxic dose of sodium formate, a natural product found in many organisms, including nettles and ants. Credit: Dr James Coverdale/University of Warwick
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Cancer cells can be destroyed more effectively and selectively with a unique new reusable treatment, activated with a substance found in stinging nettles and ants—thanks to new research by the University of Warwick.
Led by Professor Peter J. Sadler from Warwick's Department of Chemistry, researchers have developed a new line of attack against cancer: an organic-osmium compound, which is triggered using a non-toxic dose of sodium formate, a natural product found in many organisms, including nettles and ants.
Named JPC11, it targets a metabolic process which cancer cells rely on to survive and multiply. It does this by converting a key substance used by cancer cells to provide the energy they need for rapid division (pyruvate) into an unnatural lactate—leading to the cells' destruction.
Uniquely, this chemo-catalyst treatment can be recycled and reused within a cancer cell to attack it repeatedly.
This unprecedented functional ability to recycle and reuse the compound within cancer cells could lead to future anticancer drugs being administered in smaller, more effective, and potentially less toxic doses—decreasing the side-effects of chemotherapy.
The researchers have been focusing on the potential to use this compound on ovarian and prostate cancers.
Ovarian cancers are becoming increasingly resistant to existing chemotherapy drugs (such as the platinum drug, cisplatin). Since this new research functions in a totally new and unique way, it may overcome this acquired resistance and widen the spectrum of anticancer activity.
Importantly, the development opens up a possibility for a more selective cancer treatment as JPC11 was observed to specifically target the biochemistry of cancer cells, leaving healthy cells largely untouched – another improvement compared to existing platinum-based drugs, which can also attack non-cancerous cells.
Dr. James Coverdale, a Research Fellow from Warwick's Department of Chemistry, commented:
"This is a significant step in the fight against cancer. Manipulating and applying well-established chemistry in a biological context provides a highly selective strategy for killing cancer cells.
"We have discovered that chemo-catalyst JPC11 has a unique mechanism of action – and we hope that this will lead to more effective, selective and safer treatments in the future."
Professor Peter Sadler, a medicinal chemist at the University of Warwick commented:
"Platinum compounds are the most widely used drugs for cancer chemotherapy, but we urgently need to respond to the challenges of circumventing resistance and side-effects. Our lab is focussed on the discovery of truly novel anticancer drugs which can kill cells in totally new ways. Chemo-catalysts, especially those with immunogenic properties, might provide a breakthrough.
"It will take time to progress from the lab to the clinic, but we are fortunate to have a talented enthusiastic, international team working with colleagues in Warwick Cancer Research Centre across the borderlines of chemistry, cell and systems biology and cancer medicine who are determined to succeed."
Professor Martin Wills, catalyst specialist at the University of Warwick, commented:
"Although asymmetric catalytic hydrogenation processes are well developed in the materials industry, this research provides the first ever example of it being achieved inside cells using a synthetic catalyst."
Handedness (molecular asymmetry) is critical to the function of bio-molecules in the body. Proteins, enzymes and our DNA, for example—are handed. Only the correct hand works, in the same way that a right hand does not fit a left-hand glove.
In this case, the osmium compound JPC11, with sodium formate, can selectively produce a molecule of a specific 'handedness' – thus manipulating how cancer cells grow.
Dr. Coverdale explained:
"The 'handedness' of molecules is critical in the body. Our hands are near-identical, but are mirror images of each other. The same can be true of molecules, and in some cases, having the wrong handed molecule can have profound biological consequences. We believe that manipulation of the 'handedness' of molecules in cells could provide a new strategy for fighting diseases."
Explore further: Stinging nettle chemical improves cancer drug
More information: James P. C. Coverdale et al. Asymmetric transfer hydrogenation by synthetic catalysts in cancer cells, Nature Chemistry (2018). DOI: 10.1038/NCHEM.2918
Journal reference: Nature Chemistry
So now stinging nettles and ants are to be protected species, no longer subject to eradication.
Didn’t understand much of the article, nut go us! I hate cancers!
Big pharma will not allow this.
It can be made in lab, it just happens to be a natural compound, that stings when an ant bites you or the nettle stings you................
I loved that movie!
Especially when that witch-doctor kicked Sean Connery’s ass!...........
I used to get Dilantin injected intravenously every four hours for a few months to prevent seizures from head trauma. I liken the burning to that of nettles, only coursing thru your veins. They eventually had to sedate me for the pain and anxiety of those Dilantin injections. It killed off a few good veins from phlebitis too.
Not to worry, this just uses the Sodium Formate as a catalyst INSIDE the cancer cells.............
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_formate
I just pray I don't need to revisit the one and encounter the other.
Nettles will make anything wish it was dead for about a half hour.
If I knew that, I’d be a cancer researcher!.............
Cool.
“organic-osmium”?
Osmium is one of the rarest substances on earth.
At $13000 per kilogram, this med will cost a fortune.
I know a fellow who traveled to New Guinea and had an encounter with stinging nettles in a most unfortunate place. Says they are absolutely NO fun!
Interesting, wonder if that is similar to antibiotic resistance.
Medication will probably be in the micrograms level................
I know a fellow who traveled to New Guinea and came back with malaria that almost killed him.
All the local hospital had to treat it was quinine.
He had a bad allergic reaction to it and went into a coma for a week.................
bookmark
Heard a similar story about a lady who got off a plane from India with malaria symptoms and was misdiagnosed because no one in the hospital she went to here had ever seen it.
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