Turmeric, the spice related to cancer treatment, has all the time been hyped. Nevertheless, it has never been converted right into a viable drug. Now, a latest study has been successful in making a prodrug type of the wonder spice.
Turmeric, more specifically, its molecule curcumin is the ingredient that has been proven to successfully fight against tumors in several preclinical models. But with regards to manufacturing it in medicine form, pharmaceutical firms have faced many hurdles.
But a team of researchers from Kyoto University has been in a position to develop a prodrug type of curcumin called TBP1901 that has shown anti-tumor effects with no toxicity. Their study was published within the European Journal of Pharmacology.
“Curcumin has long been used as a spice or food coloring, so we expect to see minimal unwanted side effects,” lead creator Masashi Kanai said, reported SciTechDaily.
Curcumin is a natural polyphenol whose limited bioavailability and low stability have dampened its prospects in clinical use till now.
The research team identified the role of the enzyme GUSB in TBP1901 conversion to curcumin. Based on this assumption, the team predicted that the conversion of the drug into curcumin wouldn’t happen in mice which have the genetically impaired enzyme, GUSB . Furthermore, they used a CRISPR-Cas9 screen method that found that curcumin also has essential therapeutic targets.
“The high conversion rate of TBP1901 to curcumin in bone marrow warrants its clinical application for diseases growing within the marrow like multiple myeloma and leukemia,” Kanai stated.
The study was funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.
One other drug, HA15, was within the news recently. The drug is touted to kill two birds with one stone. It may possibly work against each covid-19 and cancer.
“We found that this drug was very effective in reducing the number and size of SARS-CoV-2 plaques produced within the infected cells, in secure doses which had no harmful effect on normal cells,” co-author, Amy S. Lee, professor of biochemistry and molecular medicine on the Keck School of Medicine of USC, said.
In one other study, the research team on the Keck School of Medicine investigated the efficacy of HA15 in cancer, together with one other GRP78 inhibitor YUM70. The study was conducted in collaboration with researchers on the University of Michigan, US.
It was present in the study that each, HA15 and YUM70, suppressed the production of mutant KRAS proteins, a typical mutation that resists drug treatment, and in addition reduced the variety of such mutant-bearing cancer cells.