Compounds in Brazilian Tree Bark May Be Use as Effective Leukemia Treatment

Following the development of a new method that delivers Brazilian tree bark compounds directly into the cancer cell, these substances can now be used to treat acute myeloid leukemia.

After five years, the disease has a survival rate of about 20 percent, and relapses are common.

It is an aggressive cancer and the most prevalent type of acute leukemia in adults. It is brought on by an abnormal rise in the number of a particular type of immature blood cells.

Researchers discovered a substance called β-lapachone in the bark of the lapacho tree that inhibits the growth of cancerous cells while also being toxic to other types of cells.

Minding the Negative Effects of Treatment

Professor Gonçalo Bernardes, a reader in Chemical Biology, said that Finding novel therapeutic approaches for acute myeloid leukemia is crucial. Bernardes is a Cambridge Fellow of Trinity Hall College and a Royal Society University Research Fellow. Numerous naturally occurring substances with medicinal value are currently ineffective as treatments because of their toxicity and harmful effects on healthy cells.

The group used these organic compounds in their research and altered them in a way that limits their negative effects while preserving their therapeutic potential.

The substance was altered by the team so that the body would be protected from its harmful effects until it reached the cancer cell's core.

Bernardes who is also a group leader at the Instituto de Medicina Molecular (IMM) pointed out that The substance they investigated in this study, called -lapachone, holds promise as a leukemia treatment. Its reactive qualities, though, might have unfavorable consequences. Bernardes is also one of the study's co-leaders.

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Tale of Two Strategies

Bernardes and his team combined two techniques in their work to lessen the compound's unfavorable effects.

The group gave this compound a chemical group that shields it from its reactive characteristics on one side. It functions as a mask to hide the drug's toxicity.

This mask is dispersed in an environment that is more acidic and is similar to the interior of cells.

This leads to the team's second tactic, which entails joining the modified substance to an antibody, a protein that transports it straight to the interior of cancer cells.

The chemistry created in this study can be applied to other valuable natural substances, opening the door to the use of substances with therapeutic potential that were previously unsuitable for use as medications.

Dr. Ana Guerreiro, a co-second author of the study, explained that Cancer cells can be distinguished from healthy cells by specific characteristics. One of these particular markers, called CD33, is found in the cancer cells of acute myeloid leukemia.

The research team joined their natural product to an antibody that binds only to the marker CD33.

As a result, the medication can pass through the body without harming healthy cells. When the antibody comes into contact with a cancer cell, it binds to the CD33 marker and releases the medication.

It will now change into its toxic, active form, which will kill the cancer cell, Good News Network reports.

Related article: Hematopoietic Cell Discovered to Persist and Cause Leukemia Remission Among Patients