Compound isolated from sea sponge fights cancer cells

 

• Scientists believe novel chemicals with the potential to cure human illness may be found in the ocean.
• Researchers chemically synthesized a compound that had been isolated from a sea sponge.
• The compound — 3,10-dibromofascaplysin — was tested on various prostate cancer cells.
• The synthesized compound forces tumor cells to die.
• It works well in combination with several already approved anti-cancer drugs.

Much of the ocean remains unexplored, unknown to humans.

Increasingly, medical researchers are looking to this untapped resource in hopes of discovering novel marine chemicals that hold the potential to treat and cure human illness.

In 2019, the scientific world celebrated the 50th anniversary of the introduction of cytarabine, the very first marine-derived drug. Approved for the treatment of leukemia, the drug was isolated from a marine sponge.

As of October last year, nine drugs of marine origin had been clinically approved to treat cancer patients, according to Midwestern University.

Compound kills cancer cells

Now, researchers from Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU) in Russia, together with colleagues from elsewhere in Russia and Germany, have isolated the compound 3,10-dibromofascaplysin from the sea sponge Fascaplysinopsis reticulata and then chemically synthesized it.

They tested the substance on various prostate cancer cells, including those resistant to chemotherapy.

Their findings appear in the journal Marine Drugs.

Researchers found that 3,10-dibromofascaplysin forces tumor cells to die via a programmed cell death mechanism.

They also reported the synthesized compound works well in combination with several already approved anti-cancer drugs.

Source: Medical News Today