Deep-sea microbe helps in the formulation of medically potent anticancer drugs as per a study at the UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography, published in the journal Nature Chemical Biology.
The study sought to decode the underlying enzyme-driven mechanism of an anti-cancer molecule called salinosporamide A, or Marizomb (in Phase III clinical trials to treat glioblastoma, a brain cancer) that activates the molecule.
‘Marine bacterium is found to be a rich source of a potent anti-cancer molecule according to a new study.’
The findings open the door to future biotechnology to manufacture new anti-cancer agents.
“Now that scientists understand how this enzyme makes the salinosporamide A warhead, that discovery could be used in the future to use enzymes to produce other types of salinosporamides that could attack not only cancer but diseases of the immune system and infections caused by parasites,” says co-author Bradley Moore, a distinguished professor at Scripps Oceanography and the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.
Source: Medindia
