Researchers discover Anti-cancer active ingredient in tree, but is almost extinct

The "Pharmacy Natur" has to offer a lot: time and again, researchers encounter potent active ingredients in plants, which could help against diseases such as Multiple sclerosis or cancer, and as a model for new drugs. How many potential remedies are hiding undiscovered in rain forests and Co, nobody knows. It seems clear, however: In many cases, the medicine could be extinct plants, before they were ever explored.

So it would be almost even with the pine of the kind Abies beshanzuensis plants happens. In China, endemic conifers of three copies still exist, exactly. A team of researchers Mingji Dai of Purdue University in West Lafayette dedicated to the highly endangered species now, in order to learn as much as possible about the tree, before he disappeared forever from the earth.

Inhibitory Effect

For their study, the researchers examined the bark and the needles of the Plant for the medicine of interesting ingredients. There they met, among others, substances from the group of Sesquiterpenoide. The isolated molecules you formed in a laboratory synthetically and is created in addition, some analogues, which differed from the Original structurally easily.

One of these modified molecules revealed in further experiments, in fact, as a possible drug candidate. Because Dai and his colleagues presented The preliminary "Connection 30" christened the molecule seems to be able to the tyrosine Phosphatase SHP2 selectively inhibit a Protein that is necessary for the tumor formation is essential. SHP2 inhibitors are currently the most promising agents against a number of cancer types, such as Dai said: "Many companies try to develop drugs that are effective against SHP2."

Sustained Blockade

Compared to the previously known inhibitors of the new drug has a decisive advantage: It forms a covalent bond with the Protein, and it can block according to the researchers, thus, more sustainable. Further investigations also showed that the "Connection 30" as well as the structurally closely related molecules with an enzyme called POLE3 inter and the effect of anticancer drugs such as etoposide increase can act an active ingredient, the DNA damage causes the cells in the apoptosis.

"We have found, therefore, may be an approach to verbessern&quot some already used drugs more;, Dai says. He and his colleagues want to take the anti-cancer properties of Chinese trees in the future under the magnifying glass – in the hope that your healing potential is confirmed. (The Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2019; doi: 10.1021/jacs.8b07652)

Source: Purdue University

This article was written by Daniela Albat