Renal cancer cells target of new bark-derived drug

"Synthesizing this compound helped us gain access to reasonable amounts of material needed for biological testing," said Chain. "Additionally, synthesizing the natural products compound from scratch enabled us to focus directly on englerin A's desired effect on human cancer cells."
 
With direct access to the synthesized compound Florian Sulzmaier, a graduate student in Ramos's lab, began examining the biological effects englerin A had on renal cancer cells and evaluating its impact on healthy cells.

Their findings confirmed that englerin A is a potent and selective inhibitor in the growth of human renal cancer cells. They further showed that the compound kills tumor cells and has no adverse effects on normal kidney cells. In addition, their research defines some of the biological changes caused by englerin A that precede cell death, revealing that it functions via a mechanism distinct from the current standards of care in the treatment of renal cancer. 
 
"This discovery provides an important basis for the evaluation and validation of the compound's use as an anti-tumor drug," said Sulzmaier. "This work also provides new guidance in the search for the targets of englerin A in renal cancer cells," added Ramos.
 
The next step will be to identify how englerin A specifically targets renal cancer cells and to improve the compound's effectiveness. This will allow the researchers to move forward with the promise of developing a new renal anti-cancer drug.

More information: "Englerin A selectively induces necrosis in human renal cancer cells" is published in the October 22, 2012 edition of the Public Library of Science (PLOS ONE): dx.plos.org/10.137… pone.0048032

Provided by University of Hawaii at Manoa