"Omnipotent" anticancer substance found in the seeds of ancient Chinese Medicine

An international research team led by Dr Gary Goldberg of the University of medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey - New Jersey Medical School (umdnj-som) isolated bioactive proteins from the seeds of an ancient medicinal plant of traditional Chinese medicine, and found that such proteins may help to fight against various cancers, including melanoma, and inhibit tumor spread Relevant research results were published in the July 23 issue of PLoS One Inspired by the previous research results, Dr Goldberg's research team tested a protein extracted from the seed of Maackia amurensis (MAS), a legume native to Asia As early as 400 years ago, the ancient Chinese literature recorded that this plant was used for medical purposes The researchers found that this specific component MASL in plant seeds interacts with Podoplanin (PDPN) expressed in many cancer cell types The findings seem to have profound implications because they and other research groups have found that PDPN receptors play an important role in promoting tumor invasion and metastasis to other parts of the body "Cells, even when they become cancerous, tend to stay in place," explains Dr Goldberg PDPN makes tumor cells separate from the microenvironment, invade and metastasize to new areas Our laboratory research shows that MASL not only significantly reduces cell migration, but also inhibits cancer cell growth " In this paper, Goldberg and his collaborators chose melanoma as the research object In vitro and in vivo cell cultures and model mice experiments, MASL has been proved to inhibit the migration and growth of melanoma cells by targeting PDPN receptor Melanoma is a fatal skin cancer According to the National Cancer Institute, more than 9000 people will die of melanoma in the United States this year Melanoma kills almost one person every hour in the United States, and more in other countries Although these studies focus on melanoma, MASL may also be useful in the treatment and prevention of other cancers expressing PDPN Goldberg's team has collaborated with the NIH National Cancer Institute's treatment development department to confirm that MASL can effectively inhibit lung cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer, colon cancer and brain cancer cells that often tolerate current treatment Many anticancer drugs cause significant side effects because they kill all the dividing cells indiscriminately instead of targeting the cancerous cells precisely Usually, these drugs need to be given by intravenous injection, which can not have a good effect on specific cancer In contrast, Goldberg's results suggest that MASL is effective against cancer by oral administration The researchers also confirmed that MASL did not cause significant side effects at the dose necessary to inhibit the growth and migration of cancer cells "It's not surprising that there are no obvious side effects," Dr Goldberg said For centuries, MASL has been used as an ingredient of medicinal plant extracts in the treatment of various diseases, including cancer According to the standard traditional treatment regimen, these preparations contain very high doses of MASL, and we have not found any toxicity reports on their use " Goldberg and colleagues recently set up a company called sentrimed to develop MASL and other diagnostic and therapeutic reagents for animals and humans.