Rare coral could hold key in cancer fight
Published: September 10, 2005
A RARE type of coral only found near the shores of a remote Australian island is being billed as the latest weapon in the fight against cancer.
The coral produces a defensive chemical that acts like one of the most successful anti-cancer drugs - but is 100 times more potent.
Scientists are using the compound, eleutherobin, to design effective new drugs that could be used to treat a wide range of cancers. The coral from which it is taken is confined to the Rottnest Island off the coast of Perth, Western Australia. Scientists do not know for certain why it produces eleutherobin, but assume it forms a defence against predators and marine bacteria.
Tests show it acts on cells in the same way as taxol, a chemotherapy drug used to treat breast, ovarian and lung cancer. Professor John Mann, from Queen’s University in Belfast, who is investigating the compound, said his team was trying to recreate the compound’s chemical structure.
“We’re using a convergent approach,” he said. “We’ve already made the left and righthand part of the molecule. Now we’re trying to stitch them together to make the basic skeleton.”
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