2023-06-06 16:02:24
Octopuses are fascinating in many ways. Beyond their intelligence, here they might help us to cure the evil of the century, cancer! Explanations.
The octopus (or octopus, known as Octopus vulgaris) is definitely a fascinating creature. They are indeed endowed with brain cells in their arms, but also with amazing memory and learning capacities. What they have in common with other cephalopods, however, is the production of sepia, an ink expelled to scare its predators. But it turns out that this substance is not just a simple defense! It would also contain a powerful anti-cancer.
According to new research conducted at the University of Sonora in Mexico, and published in the journal Science Directl’ozopromide, which is found in octopus ink, is said to have the power to kill cancer cells but leave healthy cells intact. The researchers chemically recreated ozopromide in the form of nanoparticles in the laboratory, and tested it on human tumor cells. And the results are surprising, as reported New Scientist.
A spectacular double action
Its effectiveness has been evaluated on samples of breast, cervical, prostate and lung cancer biopsies. The compound inhibited the proliferation of cancer cells and began to destroy them little by little. Their proliferation would have been stopped up to 50% on the lung cell sample! Ozopromide did not affect healthy cells directly surrounding diseased ones. A double effect which constitutes a considerable hope, when we know to what extent current treatments can weaken the immune defenses of patients and cause significant side effects.
In fact, while chemotherapy and radiotherapy provoke an inflammatory response in the body in order to stop the proliferation of cancer cells, affecting in their passage healthy cells, this substance derived from the octopus does just the opposite and reduces the inflammatory response. . Ozopromide seems to act in a specific way on the molecular processes allowing tumor cells to multiply indefinitely…
This discovery might be used to develop new cancer treatments. Indeed, octopus ink is completely biocompatible, well tolerated by our body. But from there until a clinical application is developed, there is still a real distance to cover: the production of artificial nanoparticles is very expensivewhile the direct exploitation of the animal recognized for its intelligence would raise questions ethical.
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