UF researchers may have found a new way to fight colon cancer.
Medicinal chemists took a toxic chemical produced by certain marine microbes and modified it so the chemical would be toxic to cancer cells.
According to Hendrik Luesch, an associate professor of medicinal chemistry at UF, certain cyanobacteria from the Pacific Ocean produce chemicals called apratoxins.
These chemicals are used to as a defense mechanism to fight predators and competitors in nature.
"A while ago, we found that they have the ability to kill cancer cells," Luesch said. "However, these natural products can also have damaging effects to normal cells."
The researchers designed a related chemical compound that is more toxic to cancer cells than the original without affecting normal cells.
Low doses of the compound were given to mice with colon cancer, and researchers discovered that the compound stopped the growth of the cancerous tumor without the poisonous effect of the natural product.
About half of all anti-cancer drugs are similar to natural products taken from organisms, Luesch said.
More research must be done before a drug based on apratoxins can be tested on human patients.
