Scientists and researchers around the world are constantly trying to find a cure for cancer. Now, they may have just stumbled across a solution that could help treat the disease. Researchers at the University of Utah School of Medicine have discovered a soft coral that secretes a cancer-treating chemical, eleutherobin. This could be a giant leap in the field of cancer drug research. Researchers have been searching for the source of this natural chemical for nearly 25 years. The DNA of these flexible corals can be studied to understand how it releases chemicals. This will allow the researchers to reproduce the soft coral chemical compound in the lab.
Eric Schmidt, professor of pharmaceutical chemistry at the University of Utah Health, has quote like saying, “This is the first time we’ve been able to do this with any drug lead on Earth.”
These chemicals have anti-inflammatory agents, antibiotics, etc. The possibility of synthetic production of these chemical compounds opens the door to their production in large quantities. This could lead to a new tool for treating cancer.
A second learn led by Bradley Moore, PhD at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography – University of California, San Diego – found that corals produce similar chemicals.
Both studies are published in the journal Natural Chemistry on May 23.
These compounds are harder to find, Schmidt says, but they’re also easier to make in the lab and as medicine.
Corals secrete their chemicals so that predators can eat the compound and not harm the coral. The soft chemistry of corals is easy to digest. Therefore, drugs derived from them can be used as water-soluble drugs.
To be able to reproduce eleutherobin in the laboratory, scientists need to study the DNA of soft corals. However, it is a difficult process to identify and be certain that part of the soft coral DNA can demonstrate that it is the source of eleutherobin.
They found regions of DNA similar to the genetic code for similar chemical compounds in other species. The researchers cultured the bacteria to replicate the first steps of making this chemical compound.
Schmidt says it’s like searching in the dark for an answer to a question people don’t understand.
