Natural Product from Sea Sponge Can Treat Pancreatic Cancer

Scientists from the Florida Atlantic University’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute have recently determined that a deep-water marine sponge accrued off of Fort Lauderdale’s coast comprises leiodermatolide, a natural product that has the ability to inhibit the growth of pancreatic cancer cells and its spread utilising particularly low concentrations of the compound.

This work resulted into the awarding of a patent from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that protects the usage of the compound against some cancers.

Sea sponges are an historical group of animals that appeared more than 600 million years in the past and have the same genes as humans. These scientists want to take advantage of this similarity in human and sponge genomes to isolate marine common compounds from these organisms to strengthen the development of drugs which may be useful in the cure of human diseases such as cancers. The researchers are increasing their customary findings, not too long ago showing that leiodermatolide can reduce pancreatic tumor size in vivo, publishing the results of this study in the International Journal of cancer (IJC).

Pancreatic cancer is the fourth main cause of cancer deaths in the USA. Pancreatic cancer patients have less than 7 percent survival rate within five years of diagnosis, and 74% of patients die within the primary year of diagnosis. Recently, pancreatic melanoma has received greater concentration given that many famous individuals have died from the disorder.

In this article in IJC titled, “Leiodermatolide, a Novel Marine Natural Product, Has powerful Cytotoxic and Antimitotic Activity Against Cancer Cells, Appears to Affect Microtubule Dynamics, and Exhibits Antitumor Activity,” the researchers more entirely outline how this marine compound kills cancer cells, and exhibit that its results not only occur against cells however it additionally has the potential to decrease pancreatic cancer tumor weight.

The lead author of the study is Esther Guzmán, Ph.D. associate research professor at FAU Harbor Branch, and the other co-authors are Amy Wright, Ph.D., research professor; Tara Pitts, biological scientist; and Priscilla Winder, Ph.D., research associate; as well as collaborators from Eisai Pharmaceuticals and the University of Central Florida. their study was able to exhibit that leiodermatolide induces programmed cell death in pancreatic cancer cells, and inhibits the progress of other cancer cells reminiscent of metastatic melanoma, colon cancer, lymphoma, and glioblastoma, a infrequent and deadly form of brain cancer.

The normally used anti-cancer drug, Taxolâ„¢, works by interacting with tubulin and inflicting its polymerization. Leiodermatolide also interacts with tubulin but appears to affect microtubule dynamics by a particular mechanism of action in comparison with different microtubule interacting agents. In a mouse model of metastatic pancreatic melanoma, leiodermatolide exhibited enormous tumor reduction in comparison with gemcitabine — the common drug for pancreatic cancer and controls.

According to the lead author, Given the uniqueness of its mechanism of action, its potency, its selectivity for cancer cells, and its in vivo efficacy, leiodermatolide is an extremely interesting compound that merits further studies to determine its therapeutic potential for addressing some of the most devastating forms of cancer.

Another author remarked, The primary goal of our marine biomedical and biotechnology program is to discover marine natural products with utility as medicines or as tools to better allow us to understand disease processes.

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