2023-10-13 10:11:00
For more than 25 years, drug researchers have searched for the source of eleuterobin – a natural chemical that showed promise for treating cancer in early trials. Now, a research team led by University of Utah Health has discovered that easy-to-find soft corals (flexible corals that resemble underwater plants) produce this elusive compound. By identifying this source, as well as the corals’ DNA code to synthesize the chemical, scientists have already been able to begin recreating this potentially therapeutic compound in the laboratory.
Soft corals are known to host thousands of chemical compounds that might act as anti-inflammatory agents, antibiotics and other types of medications. In the 1990s, marine scientists discovered that a rare coral near Australia contained eleuterobin, a chemical used by corals to defend themselves once morest predators. Laboratory research has shown that this compound may also act as a potent inhibitor of cancer cell growth. However, for more than two decades, scientists failed to find the chemical in quantities needed for drug development.
The researchers analyzed samples of soft corals living off the coast of Florida to see if their genetic code contained the instructions needed to make the compound. Although they didn’t initially know what the instructions for making the chemical should look like, they looked for regions of the corals’ DNA that resembled genetic instructions for similar types of compounds from other species.
After programming laboratory-grown bacteria to follow coral DNA instructions specific to soft corals, the microorganisms appeared capable of replicating the first steps in producing this potential cancer treatment. This proved not only that soft corals are major sources of eleuterobin, but also that this valuable compound might be easily manufactured in the laboratory.
“This is the first time we have been able to do this with a state-of-the-art drug on Earth,” said the study’s lead author, Eric Schmidt, professor of medicinal chemistry at the University of Health. from Utah. “These compounds are harder to find, but they are easier to make in the lab and take as medicine. »
Professor Schmidt and his team hope that, in the near future, drugs derived from these compounds can be administered as pills with a glass of water, rather than by injection or other more invasive means.
“I hope to one day be able to hand them over to a doctor,” said the study’s lead author, Paul Scesa, a postdoctoral researcher at University of Utah Health. “I think it goes from the bottom of the ocean to the bench to the bedside. »
The study is published in the journal Nature Chemical Biology.
Par Andrei Ionescu, Threatened-species.fr Editor
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