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    Home > Active Ingredient News > Antitumor Therapy > Can antibiotics treat cancer?

    Can antibiotics treat cancer?

    • Last Update: 2021-06-04
    • Source: Internet
    • Author: User
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    Image source: Pixabay.
    Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) said that in addition to treating common bacterial infections (such as pneumonia and sinusitis), antibiotics may also be used to treat human diseases such as cancer, at least in theory It works.

    Translation | Reviewed by Yang Nan | Hong Yirui The research team from UIC School of Pharmacy has discovered that the ribosomes of eukaryotes can be modified so that they bind to antibiotics like the ribosomes of prokaryotes.

    The research was published in Nature Communications.

    The cells of eukaryotes such as fungi, plants, and animals (including humans) have a nucleus covered by a nuclear membrane.

    Bacteria are prokaryotes, and the cells that compose them not only do not contain a nucleus, but also differ in structure, size, and properties.

    In these two types of cells, the ribosomes responsible for protein synthesis are not the same in nature.

    Alexander Mankin is a professor of medicinal chemistry and pharmacology at the UIC School of Pharmacy and the corresponding author of the study.

    He said: "The mechanism of antibiotics to treat bacterial infections is very interesting.

    It can bind to the ribosomes of bacteria and selectively inhibit the synthesis of some bacterial proteins.

    In the absence of these proteins, the bacteria will die.

    " Picture source :Pixabay When antibiotics are used to treat bacterial infections, the patient's own cells will not be affected.

    This is because the drug targets the ribosomes of prokaryotes and therefore will not bind to eukaryotic ribosomes of different shapes.

    "Many human diseases are caused by harmful proteins, which are very common in many cancers and neurodegenerative diseases.

    We want to know whether antibiotics can be used to specifically prevent human cells from synthesizing harmful proteins without affecting the synthesis of other proteins.

    "Mankin said.

    To answer this question, Mankin and Maxim Svetlov, the first author of this study and a research assistant professor in the Department of Pharmacy, set their sights on something similar to human cells.
    A kind of eukaryotic cell-yeast cell.

    Mankin said that their research team and partners from Germany and Switzerland performed a "cool trick": "We modified the yeast ribosome to make it more Ribosomes like bacteria.

    "The research team used biochemical and genetic methods to mutate one of the more than 7,000 nucleotides that make up yeast ribosomal RNA, which is enough to make macrolide antibiotics (a common type of Antibiotics that play a role in the body) bind to the yeast ribosome.

    Then, the researchers performed genome analysis and high-resolution structural analysis of this engineered yeast to understand how each protein in the cell is synthesized, as well as macrolide antibiotics.
    How to interact with yeast ribosomes.

    Mankin said: "Through these analyses, we learned that there are specific amino acid sequences in proteins.

    Macrolide antibiotics can recognize these sequences and determine whether to inhibit protein synthesis in eukaryotic ribosomes.

    From a theoretical perspective, this suggests that antibiotics can be used to selectively inhibit protein synthesis in human cells and to treat diseases caused by harmful proteins.

    "UIC researchers’ experiments laid the foundation for further research.

    Mankin said: "Since we know that this idea is theoretically feasible, we can first find some antibiotics that can bind to unmodified eukaryotic ribosomes, and then It is optimized so that it can specifically inhibit the synthesis of harmful proteins.

    Link to the original text: https:// Link to the paper: https:// "Global Science 》The June issue is now available.
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