Natural compounds often have promising therapeutic potential, but their use in the treatment of diseases is hampered by toxicity or harmful effects.
However, a new study by researchers from Rice University and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center led by Gonzalo Bernardes, group leader at the Joao Lobo Antunes Institute for Molecular Medicine (Portugal) and professor at the University of Cambridge ( UK), and the Center for Molecular Medicine ’Gonzalo Jimenez Ossis, head of the research team at Biosciences Collaborative Research, reports that the new drugs are developed from natural compounds extracted from the bark of the Brazilian labacho tree , and a therapeutic agent is obtained that can be effective treatment for it. acute myeloid leukemia or acute leukemia.
AML, the most common form of acute leukemia in adults, is an aggressive cancer caused by an abnormal increase in the number of a type of immature blood cell called myeloid cells.
Patients had a survival rate of only approximately 20% after 5 years and a high incidence of disease recurrence.
“It is important to find new treatment approaches for acute myeloid leukemia. There are many natural compounds with medicinal value that are not available therapeutically today due to toxicity and adverse effects on healthy cells. In our study, we used and modified these natural compounds, ”said Jimenez Ossis. in a way that can control them and allow us to benefit from their therapeutic value. ”
In 2018, this team used machine learning to find the target of a compound from the bark of the lapacho tree, which belongs to the ortho-quinone family called β-lapachone.
These compounds are known to control the abnormal increase in cell number that characterizes cancer and are good candidates for leukemia therapy.
Bernardis added: “The compound we discovered in this study, called β-lapachone, is a promising drug for the treatment of leukemia, but the interactions that characterize it can have undesirable consequences. effects. In this study, we combined two strategies to reduce the adverse effects of the compound. Chemicals in this compound that protect you against its reactive properties. We added a group that serves as a mask that covers the toxicity of the drug, and this mask is released in a more acidic environment that is compatible with intima. The second approach is that we bind the modified compound to a protein, an antibody, and deliver it directly to the body’s cancer cells. ”
Ana Guerrero, co-author of the study, explains: “Cancer cells have specific markers that distinguish them from healthy cells. In acute myeloid leukemia, we know that one of these particular markers, called CD33, is found in cancer cells. It binds our natural product to an antibody that binds to it. ” When the antibody encounters a cancer cell, it binds to the CD33 tag and delivers the drug. At this point it will change. It kills the cancer cell by taking it to its active and toxic form. ”
In addition to the therapeutic benefit of this technique for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia, the chemistry developed in this study can be used for other important natural compounds, allowing the use of compounds with therapeutic potential previously not suitable for medical use.
source: phys.org
Source: Arabic RT
