 |  |  | | | PLANT POWER HOLDS CANCER CLUES | | | | |
| |  Petty spruge
Release Date: 21st June 2005
Scientists, part funded by Leukaemia Research, are harnessing the power of plants in the hope of finding new treatments for leukaemia.
Sap from a weed traditionally used for treating corns and warts contains chemicals that can control cell growth and death. Scientists at the University of Birmingham are now working on new drug models for fighting cancer and even arthritis based on harnessing natural products from plants, algae and fungi as well as man made chemicals which mimic their actions.
The weed is petty spurge (Euphorbia peplus), also known as milk weed, and is a common weed found in gardens. An extract of petty spurge has been tested against cancer cells taken from eight patients with acute myeloid leukaemia, a particularly aggressive cancer of bone marrow stem cells. In seven of the eight samples it killed between 56 and 95 per cent of the cancer cells. These results were even achieved using low concentrations of up to a hundredth of those that would damage healthy cells. A clinical trial with myeloid leukaemia patients will begin next year in Paris.
The sap extract works by activating an enzyme called protein kinase C which triggers controlled cell suicide. Protein kinases are enzymes in cells that can control how quickly the cell grows or dies. In many cancers the basic problem is that cells either grow too quick, die too slowly, or both. With this in mind, when tackling cancer cells scientists are trying to find drugs that can turn these molecules on or off – to trigger suicide.
Professor Janet Lord, a protein kinase expert from the University of Birmingham is leading the research.
"We have known for some time that we wanted to target protein kinases as a target for killing cancer cells, the problem has been finding something to do it," she says. "The chemicals that exist in nature are more complex than we could easily make, so using natural products is very exciting. Traditional use of plants or old-wives tales can point us in the direction of plants with medicinal potential. These novel treatments could be a useful agent when used alongside current cancer therapies."
Ken Campbell, Clinical Information Officer at Leukaemia Research says: "We continue to fund research to find treatments that can be used by everyone and encourage better survival and quality of life. These natural chemicals may provide an alternative to the aggressive treatments currently in use for acute myeloid leukaemia. This will also offer hope to more vulnerable patients such as the elderly or young who can not tolerate existing therapies."
The petty spurge extract, known as PEP005 or 3-angelate, was developed in Australia by Brisbane-based company Peplin Ltd. Australian scientists are conducting trials of the compound as a treatment for non-melanoma skin cancers.
The Birmingham team are currently working on a five year project researching protein kinases. It is hoped to develop new drugs and treatment strategies for major diseases like cancer, autoimmune disorders, heart disease, degenerative brain disease and rheumatoid arthritis. This work is part of a major 15 million euro European Commission project, uniting 23 scientists in 11 countries.
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