Insect parasites against cancer
Scientists from Pushchina found an antitumor substance in fungi
Tatiana Perevyazova, Press Secretary of ITEB RAS
BezFormata.Ru
The substance contained in the extract of fungi Lecanicilium lecanii, prevents the growth of blood tumor cells. This was found out by scientists from the Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Biophysics of the Russian Academy of Sciences (ITEB RAS) in Pushchina together with colleagues from Virion LLC, experimenting on mice.
They presented the results of the study in recent issues of the journals Bulletin of Experimental Biology and Medicine and Medical Radiology and Radiation Safety.
Mushrooms serve as a truly inexhaustible source of nutrients and medicines. Antibiotics are isolated from fungi, medicines for parasites are created. The prospects of creating drugs for chemotherapy are also associated with mushrooms. In the laboratory of oxidative stress of ITEB RAS, under the guidance of Doctor of Biological Sciences Yuri Korystov, the antitumor effect of fungal extract was studied Lecanicilium lecanii, which naturally infect insects.
Scientists assumed that the enzyme lipoxygenase is contained in plant cells, blood, and various animal organs. It is known that it oxidizes arachidonic acid and thus controls the work of cells. In some conditions, lipoxygenase triggers a program of death of healthy cells. But cancer cells, on the contrary, the enzyme helps to actively divide. So, the scientists reasoned, if you neutralize lipoxygenase, the growth of cancer cells will slow down or stop altogether.
There are several varieties of lipoxygenase, depending on exactly how it behaves in the oxidation reaction. Scientists were interested in how effective the extract of fungi is Lecanicilium lecanii will resist the so-called 15-lipoxygenase contained in cancer cells. Based on the results of previous work, they already knew that this type of enzyme from healthy rat blood cells is sensitive to fungal extract.
To test their hypothesis, the scientists inoculated mice with P388 lymphocytic leukemia cells provided from the collection of the Russian National Research Center. Flea. Then they were extracted and treated with an extract of fungi previously grown in the laboratory. Using a microscope and a flow cytometer, the number of dead cancer cells was calculated. It turned out to be significant, although somewhat less than when treating cells with another, more studied, enzyme suppressor.
In the next experiment, the scientists irradiated healthy t-lymphocytes of rats, that is, immune cells, simulating the conditions of radiotherapy. They knew that 15-lipoxygenase was involved in the death of irradiated t-lymphocytes. So, if it is neutralized, the irradiated t-lymphocytes will not die. And it turned out to be so in experience. The more concentrated the extract was treated with irradiated cells, the less they died.
"The opposite effects of lipoxygenase inhibitors on normal and tumor cells can be used in the treatment of tumors, in particular, in their radiotherapy in combination with chemotherapy," the authors of the study write. In previous studies, they found that the extract contains compounds similar in chemical activity to anti-inflammatory substances.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru