Sea squirt offers hope of cancer breakthrough
February 6, 2005 (Press Release) --
AN INNOCUOUS sea creature which appears to be little more than a tube of slime could help to save thousands of lives by yielding new treatments for drug-resistant cancers.
Sea squirts spend most of their lives attached to underwater rocks, sifting tiny particles of food from the water around them.
But researchers at Aberdeen University plan to harness the powerful method used by the slug-like creatures to defend themselves from infection.
The unassuming ascidians use potent chemicals to kill bacteria and fungi that can cause diseases.
Now Professor Marcel Jaspers, from the universitys chemistry department, has been given 157,000 to use the sea squirts to find new anti- cancer drugs.
"We dont see anything like cancer in sea squirts," said Jaspers. "The chemicals they use to protect themselves against bacteria could be the reason for this.
"Instead of using a complex immune system like we see in mammals, sea squirts use chemicals that attack pathogenic bacteria and fungi. It has been known for some time these chemicals are effective against cancer cells, but until now they have generally been overlooked due to the difficulty in harvesting them."
Jaspers and his team are hoping to use modern techniques to artificially produce the anti-cancer chemicals in harmless forms of bacteria.
By isolating fragments of DNA responsible for producing the chemicals in sea squirts and using it to genetically modify the bacteria, they hope to encourage production of the chemicals in the laboratory.
Jaspers is currently concentrating on one particular sea squirt found living on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia called Lissoclinum patella.
Although it appears to be no more than green candle wax dripping off the coral, it produces a highly effective anti-cancer chemical.
"The chemical we are looking at to begin with is extremely active against multiple drug-resistant cancers," explained Jaspers. "We hope to use it to develop a method of producing other sea-squirt-derived drugs."
Source: http://news.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=141482005
Sea squirts spend most of their lives attached to underwater rocks, sifting tiny particles of food from the water around them.
But researchers at Aberdeen University plan to harness the powerful method used by the slug-like creatures to defend themselves from infection.
The unassuming ascidians use potent chemicals to kill bacteria and fungi that can cause diseases.
Now Professor Marcel Jaspers, from the universitys chemistry department, has been given 157,000 to use the sea squirts to find new anti- cancer drugs.
"We dont see anything like cancer in sea squirts," said Jaspers. "The chemicals they use to protect themselves against bacteria could be the reason for this.
"Instead of using a complex immune system like we see in mammals, sea squirts use chemicals that attack pathogenic bacteria and fungi. It has been known for some time these chemicals are effective against cancer cells, but until now they have generally been overlooked due to the difficulty in harvesting them."
Jaspers and his team are hoping to use modern techniques to artificially produce the anti-cancer chemicals in harmless forms of bacteria.
By isolating fragments of DNA responsible for producing the chemicals in sea squirts and using it to genetically modify the bacteria, they hope to encourage production of the chemicals in the laboratory.
Jaspers is currently concentrating on one particular sea squirt found living on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia called Lissoclinum patella.
Although it appears to be no more than green candle wax dripping off the coral, it produces a highly effective anti-cancer chemical.
"The chemical we are looking at to begin with is extremely active against multiple drug-resistant cancers," explained Jaspers. "We hope to use it to develop a method of producing other sea-squirt-derived drugs."
Source: http://news.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=141482005
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