London:
Scientists have identified a molecule that can rapid kill tumour cells and
could potentially be used to develop new cancer therapies.
Humans need the
chemical element selenium for good health. The selenium-containing enzyme
thioredoxin reductase 1 (TrxR1) can be used to support the growth of cells and
to protect them from harmful forms of oxygen radicals that cause oxidative
stress.
Selenium intake
has long been connected with cancer, although the correlation between selenium
and cancer growth is extremely complex and not fully understood.
Raised levels of
TrxR1 can be seen in several forms of cancer and are linked to worse prognoses
in head and neck, lung and breast cancers.
Researchers
analysed almost 400,000 molecules in the search for new and more specific TrxR1
inhibitors than those previously available. They discovered three molecules
that met their search criteria. Sure enough, when tested, these same molecules
also proved to be active as cancer medicines.
The researchers
were able to treat over 60 types of cancer cells under laboratory conditions.
Normal cells were, however, much less sensitive to these molecules.
“This
effectiveness against cancer may be a result of cancer cells’ seemingly greater
sensitivity to oxidative stress when compared to normal cells, which in turn
can be utilised in cancer therapy,” said Elias Arner, from Karolinska
Institutet in Sweden.
Researchers also
found that rapid tumouricidal effects when treating head and neck or breast
cancers in mice, without obvious side-effects.
The new
molecules have yet to be tested on humans, but it is already known that several
different cancer medicines currently in use, including cisplatin and melfalan,
inhibit TrxR1, researchers said.
“My hope is that
we will be able to develop new treatments, effective against multiple forms of
cancer but with few side-effects,” said Arner, who led the study published in
the journal Science Translational Medicine.
“This seems to
work in mouse models and we are therefore hopeful that this principle for
treatment can be developed for humans, even if this will require many years of
further research,” he said.
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