b5media has decided to retire this blog.

So long and thanks a lot for everything.

See you all around the blogosphere.

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Scientists at the University of Florida College of Pharmacy found a marine compound that inhibits cancer cell growth in lab tests which they hope can lead to new anti-cancer drugs with fewer sides effects.

The said UF-patented compound, called largazole was made from cyanobacteria that grow on coral reefs.

Researchers, who described results from early studies today (Aug. 7) at an international natural products scientific meeting in Athens, Greece, say it is one of the most promising theyve found since the colleges marine natural products laboratory was established three years ago.

Largazole, discovered and named by Luesch for its Florida location and structural features, seeks out a family of enzymes called histone deacetylase, or HDAC. Overactivity of certain HDACs has been associated with several cancers such as prostate and colon tumors, and inhibiting HDACs can activate tumor-suppressor genes that have been silenced in these cancers.

Read more about this exciting potential anti-cancer compound and the studybeing conducted behind it at University of Florida.

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Tumor weight and growth rate has been reduced by about 50 percent in mouse models of brain, ovarian, and pancreatic cancers with injections of high-dose Vitamin C (ascorbate or ascorbic acid).

Such were the results reported by the NIH study at the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS):

The NIH researchers, however, tested the idea that ascorbate, when injected at high doses, may have prooxidant instead of antioxidant activity. Prooxidants would generate free radicals and the formation of hydrogen peroxide, which, the scientists hypothesized, might kill tumor cells.

In their laboratory experiments on 43 cancer and 5 normal cell lines, the researchers discovered that high concentrations of ascorbate had anticancer effects in 75 percent of cancer cell lines tested, while sparing normal cells. In their paper, the researchers also showed that these high ascorbate concentrations could be achieved in people.

The team then tested ascorbate injections in immune-deficient mice with rapidly spreading ovarian, pancreatic, and glioblastoma (brain) tumors. The ascorbate injections reduced tumor growth and weight by 41 to 53 percent. In 30 percent of glioblastoma controls, the cancer had spread to other organs, but the ascorbate-treated animals had no signs of disseminated cancer. “

Th potential of Vitamin C as cancer therapy has been ‘dropped’ years ago when high dose oral administration did not seem to work. Now with this ascorbate injection form…potentially yes, in this mice study. A lot more work is needed before experts can say that this will work in humans as well. We’ll see…

Read from from NIH News.

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A research team from Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center and the VCU Institute of Molecular Medicine have showed that combining a dietary agent with a gene-delivered cytokine effectively eliminates human pancreatic cancer cells in mice displaying sensitivity to these highly aggressive and lethal cancer cells.

The cytokine used in this study was melanoma differentiation associated gene-7/interleukin-24, known as mda-7/IL-24.

The dietary agent, perillyl alcohol (POH), was combined with mda-7/IL-24, which is already used in other cancer treatments. POH is found in a variety of plants, including citrus plants, and has been well-tolerated by patients who have received it in clinical studies.

Published in the July issue of Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, their results indicated that the CGT approach not only prevented pancreatic cancer growth and progression, but it also effectively killed established tumors — thus demonstrating strong chemopreventive and therapeutic activity.

The researchers are hopeful they can one day move to human clinical trials.

Read the full report from Virginia Commonwealth University.

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Methadone - the agent used against opioid addiction - has been found by German researchers to have surprising killing powers against treatment-resistant forms of leukemia cells.

Methadone, developed in Germany in the 1930s, is a low cost agent that acts on opioid receptors, and thus is used as an opioid substitute to treat addiction. Scientists have found that opioid receptors also exist on the surface of some cancer cells for reasons that are not understood. One research group tested the agent in human lung cancer cell lines and found that it can induce cell death.

Thus suggesting that methadone has the potential as a new therapy for leukemia, more specifically in patients whose cancer no longer responds to chemotherapy and radiation.

The said laboratory study finding was published in the August 1 issue of Cancer Research.

Read more details from Science Daily.

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