Study shows how a drug-lead compound suppresses tumour formation

Study shows how a drug-lead compound suppresses tumour formation: A team of scientists from the National University of Singapore's (NUS) Department of Biological Sciences and Mechanobiology Institute have discovered how a drug-led compound - a compound that is undergoing preclinical trials as a potential drug - can deprive cancer cells of energy and stop them from growing into a tumour. This drug-led compound is named BPTES (see below structure). This is the the first detailed descriptions of precisely how BPTES inhibits glutaminase....

 

Ref : http://www.pnas.org/content/109/20/7705.full

A New Approach to Faster Anticancer Drug Discovery

A new approach to drug discovery, according to scientists at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine who used the approach to uncover a potential treatment for prostate cancer, using a drug Peruvoside (see below structure) currently marketed for congestive heart failure.  

A New Approach to Faster Anticancer Drug Discovery

Study shows grape seed extract kills head and neck squamous cell carcinoma cells

A study by researchers lead by Dr.Rajesh Agarwal,  shows that in both cell lines and mouse models, grape seed extract (GSE) kills head and neck squamous cell carcinoma cells, while leaving healthy cells unharmed. "It's a rather dramatic effect," says Rajesh Agarwal, PhD, investigator at the University of Colorado Cancer Center and professor at the Skaggs School of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Grape seed extract creates these conditions that are unfavorable to growth. Specifically, the paper shows that grape seed extract both damages cancer cells' DNA (via increased reactive oxygen species) and stops the pathways that allow repair (as seen by decreased levels of the DNA repair molecules Brca1 and Rad51 and DNA repair foci).

 "Yet we saw absolutely no toxicity to the mice, themselves," Agarwal says.

Interestingly,  the grape seed extract killed the cancer cells but not the healthy cells. As per the lead reseacher,  the  cancer cells have a lot of defective pathways and they are very vulnerable  and one can  target those pathways. The same is not true of healthy cells," adds Agarwal.

The Agarwal Lab hopes to move in the direction of clinical trials of grape seed extract, potentially as an addition to second-line therapies that target head and neck squamous cell carcinoma that has failed a first treatment.

Ref :  http://carcin.oxfordjournals.org/content/23/11/1869.abstract?sid=90421d40-8cea-478e-8d70-f5a17c4158b7

'Turkey tail' mushroom effectively suppresses prostate tumour development

We Know that, Turkey tail/Trametes versicolor — formerly known as Coriolus versicolor and Polyporus versicolor is an extremely common polypore mushroom which can be found throughout the world. Versicolor means 'of several colours' and it is true that this mushroom is found in a wide variety of different colours. T. versicolor is commonly called Turkey Tail because of its resemblance to the tail of the wild turkey. T. versicolor is recognized as a medicinal mushroom in Chinese medicine under the name yun zhi. In China and Japan T. versicolor is used as in immunoadjuvant therapy for cancer. Now Queensland University of Technology (QUT) researchers reported that, the mushroom  has the  medicinal benefits up to  100 per cent effective in suppressing prostate tumour development in mice during early trials......

'Turkey tail' mushroom effectively suppresses prostate tumour development