MEDICAL
Michael Irving
August 2nd, 2019
The
common flower Feverfew has been found to host an anti-cancer compound (Credit:
HeikeRau/Depositphotos)
The compound in question is
called parthenolide, and it's been under this kind of investigation for years.
Scientists have suspected that the compound is an anti-cancer agent, but it's
been hard and expensive to make in useful amounts.
Feverfew and related plants are
high in parthenolide, so the Birmingham team started by figuring out the best
candidate for extracting the compound. After a few tests, they settled on
Feverfew itself, with the highest levels being found at a point late in the
flowering cycle.
From there, the researchers
managed to extract the compound from the plant, refine it and turn it into new
derivatives that were good candidates for drugs. Of this list of 76 versions,
the team eventually singled out one that had particularly good bioavailability –
meaning it could react with living cells – and better pharmacological properties
than most.
The compound was put to work
fighting a form of cancer called chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), and in
tests on cultured cancer cells, it appeared to be effective. The compound works
by raising the levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS), unstable molecules that
can be toxic to cells. ROS are also being investigated as potential antibacterial
agents, and since levels are already higher
in cancer tissue than healthy cells, the compound helps
push it over the edge.
"This research is important not
only because we have shown a way of producing parthenolide that could make it
much more accessible to researchers, but also because we've been able to improve
its 'drug-like' properties to kill cancer cells," says John Fossey,
corresponding author of the study. "It's a clear demonstration that parthenolide
has the potential to progress from the flowerbed into the clinic."
Of course, the next steps will be
to test the compound in living animals and eventually humans.
The research was published in
the journal MedChemComm.
The team discusses the work in the video below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i47eJmgDPs4
Source: New Atlas URL:
https://newatlas.com/anti-cancer-compound-common-flower-feverfew/60872/University
of Birmingham