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US Researchers Find New Anti-Cancer Compounds

Posted on: Thursday, 21 April 2005, 09:00 CDT

US researchers find new anti-cancer compounds LOS ANGELES, April 19 (Xinhua)-- Novel anti-cancer compounds called Enigmols can suppress the growth of a wide range human tumor cells, US researchers announced at a meeting on Tuesday.

In three animal tests, the compounds restrained cancers of the prostate, breast, colon, ovary, pancreas, brain and blood, but did not show side effects at effective doses, according to the research conducted at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Emory University and Wayne State University.

The findings were presented at the annual meeting of American Association for Cancer Research in Anaheim, California. In coming weeks the researchers will submit the results to a scientific journal. However, human trials must still be done to determine safety and efficacy in people, they cautioned.

"Many agents suppress cancer cells in a Petri dish and then not in the whole animal, or have unacceptably high toxicity for normal tissues," said Al Merrill, professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

"Finding that Enigmols are effective in three animal models leads us to hope these may be a new approach to treat cancer."

Enigmols are synthetic analogs of sphingolipids, a group of cell- signaling molecules that help cells decide whether to grow or die via a controlled process called apoptosis. Cancer cells are usually defective in these regulatory pathways, so researchers hypothesized that structurally modified sphingolipid analogs might be even better at making cancer cells behave more normally.

Earlier, the researchers have found that sphingolipids in food, such as low-fat dairy products and soybeans, suppress tumors in mouse models for colon cancer. They cause the disappearance of nuclear beta-catenin, restoring cells to their normal behavior.

Encouraged by these findings, researchers at Emory University prepared almost 100 sphingolipid-based analogs, leading to the discovery that the Enigmols were the most potent.

In addition to being more potent than naturally occurring sphingolipids, the researchers have also found that Enigmols can be administered orally and appear in organs such as the prostate.

Subsequently, the researchers found that Enigmols suppress the growth of human prostate tumors implanted in mice, which is a commonly used model to test new anti-cancer drugs. They were also effective in two other mouse models for colon cancer.

The researchers said they do not know why Enigmols affect such a wide range of tumor cell types, but they hypothesized it may be due to the involvement of sphingolipids in multiple cell-signaling pathways. This means a compound may affect several different targets, rather than just one.

In essence, Enigmols may act like a multi-drug combination therapy, the investigators speculate. The compounds are also being tested in combination with other cancer chemotherapeutic drugs.

"Even if Enigmols are effective in humans, the greatest success is likely to come from the right combination of drugs that interact in a synergistic way," Merrill noted.

Source: Xinhua News Agency - CEIS

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