Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
A groundbreaking study led by the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology in collaboration with Dominican University of California explores how small molecules derived from sea sponges affect energy production in mitochondria and details their remarkably targeted effects on various types of cancers.
[...] The research focused on mycothiazole (MTZ), a molecule found in the marine sponge C. mycofijiensis, and its synthetic analog 8-O-acetylmycothiazole (8-OAc). These molecules demonstrated significant efficiency in inhibiting the function of electron transport chain (ETC) complex I, a key component of mitochondrial energy production.
The study compared both molecules to the more extensively studied ETC inhibitor rotenone. Mainly used as an agricultural pesticide, rotenone has exhibited anti-cancer properties in human cells in previous studies. However, in this study, rotenone also displayed significant toxicity to non-cancer cells in addition to its effect on cancerous cells.
Both MTZ and 8-OAc exhibited higher toxicity against liver carcinoma, breast cancer, and glioblastoma cells compared to non-cancerous cells in vitro, demonstrating markedly better selectivity than rotenone. Notably, 8-OAc, which is more shelf-stable than MTZ, showed the best selectivity for cancer cells versus healthy cells, highlighting its potential in future therapeutic development, Sanabria said.
"When we test the drugs in human cells, they preferentially target cancer cells for cell death pathways. It does so very robustly; we're getting anywhere from 60% to 80% cell death in cancer cells," they said.
"But when we treat non-cancer cells with the exact same concentrations, we're getting very little effect. Not only are we not seeing any cell death, these drugs basically have no change to the transcriptome of non-cancer cells, which suggests that it's really doing nothing to the non-cancerous cells at the same concentrations that it's able to kill cancer cells."
More information: Naibedya Dutta et al, Investigating impacts of the mycothiazole chemotype as a chemical probe for the study of mitochondrial function and aging, GeroScience (2024). DOI: 10.1007/s11357-024-01144-w
(Score: 3, Funny) by looorg on Monday June 17 2024, @10:24AM
Sponge Bob cures cancer, excellent news from the bottom of the sea.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by pTamok on Monday June 17 2024, @11:10AM (3 children)
2 types of cancer, and a quick browse of the paper didn't tell me which non-cancerous human cell-lines they tested. At least the drugs didn't kill the C. elegans worms they tested on.
Given the molecules affect mitochondrial function, because there are so many different types of cells in the human body, it's difficult to be sure they won't affect other, non-cancerous cells badly. There's no single marker for 'cancer', because there are so many different types of cancer, and regulation of mitochondrial function can vary across human cell types. There's a lot of testing needing - more in vitro of healthy human cell lines, and animal testing (I don't know which species) before any human trials. That takes a while, is expensive, and has a high failure rate.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Monday June 17 2024, @01:41PM (2 children)
Yeah, until they test it on mice it's a lab curiosity that needs further investigation.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by Ox0000 on Monday June 17 2024, @01:48PM (1 child)
Poe's law [wikipedia.org] strikes again...
I'm not sure you are alluding to the fact that using mouse models is completely bonkers but it's what the FDA requires so that's why they do it even though it has no bearing on the efficacy in humans, or if you are legit requiring that mouse models be done to show efficacy in humans.
(Score: 4, Touché) by HiThere on Monday June 17 2024, @05:44PM
Basically, a mouse is a cheap mammalian organism. They come in a variety of easily disposable gene lines. If you haven't even tested it on a mouse, you can't really claim it will work on a complete organism.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 1) by IronClad on Monday June 17 2024, @05:31PM
** oh, and non-cancer.