Cancer Therapies Derived from Marine Animals

Scientists from Aberdeen, Luxembourg, and the South Pacific have studied the properties of natural products derived from animals found in Fijian waters, and demonstrated that not only many specific compounds found in these organisms have potential use in anticancer therapies, but others may also be useful for improving drug delivery, currently one of the most significant problems faced by medical researchers.

Prof. Marcel Jaspars, from the University of Aberdeen (UK), presented insights into these new compounds on July 7, 2008, at the Society for Experimental Biology's annual meeting in Marseille, France.

The investigators focused on finding compounds that interfere with a protein called nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-kB). This specific protein is known to have a crucial role in many types of cancer, as well as a number of other diseases including inflammatory bowel disease, arthritis, and asthma, so there is a major drive to find molecules which can inhibit its activity. "We have tested a large number of marine species to see which can prevent NF-kB from working,” explains Prof. Jaspars. "A few animals, including sponges, soft corals, and sea lilies, were examined further, and from these we have been able to isolate and characterize the compounds responsible. We have shown that one of these molecules is able to allow normal cell death [which NK-kB switches off in some cancerous cells] to start up again, a property which we will be going onto study in much more detail.”

There is another possible application of molecules isolated from marine creatures that has the potential to have just as great an impact on the development of new medicines. "It is an unfortunate reality that currently, many new excellent drugs are discovered that cannot be delivered effectively to the places where they are required,” Prof. Jaspars revealed. "However, we have isolated one compound from a Mediterranean sponge that may help to end this trend. This molecule can reversibly create pores in cell membranes, a property for we envisage vast possibilities in the transportation of medicinal drugs. As we can now make this compound in the lab in large quantities, we are now able to investigate possible applications of the molecule, including drug delivery into tumors, gene delivery for cystic fibrosis and delivery of drugs into the eye.”

NF-kB is a protein complex found to regulate gene expression. It is involved in immune responses to infection and has been demonstrated to play a role in many diseases including cancer, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.


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