Anti - cancer snake tail
FEFU scientists: deep-sea snake-tail extract is able to turn off the deadliest type of cancer
Anna Leontieva, FEFU Press Service
A group of scientists from the Far Eastern Federal University found deep-sea snake-tail extract to have activity against the thrice-negative phenotype of breast cancer. The extract turns off the Wnt signaling pathway in cancer cells, which causes their uncontrolled growth, while the substance does not have cytotoxicity, that is, it is not dangerous. The marine animal was caught at a depth of about 3,000 meters during an expedition near the Kuril Depression of the Sea of Okhotsk in 2015. The results of the study are published in the international journal Scientific Reports.
Vsevolod Cherepanov, a researcher at the Laboratory of Pharmacology of Natural Compounds of the School of Biomedicine of the FEFU, said that the screening of extracts was carried out on a cell line of a thrice negative phenotype of breast cancer. This is one of the deadliest types of cancer, which annually claims the lives of 200,000 people, since there are no major pharmaceutical targets for treatment in its cells.
Different groups of scientists have studied this type of cancer and found the cause of uncontrolled cell division. Mutations were found precisely in the components of the Wnt signaling pathway - the biochemical pathway for transmitting information inside the cell.
"It turns out that it is the components of the Wnt signaling cascade that are potential targets for the therapy of this type of cancer. We have launched screening of 80 extracts of deep-sea invertebrates caught during the expedition. 15 extracts showed activity, but the strongest effect – almost one hundred percent shutdown of the canonical Wnt signaling pathway inside cancer cells - was shown by the alcohol extract of Ophiura irrorata snake–tail. This is a relative of a starfish living at a depth of 3,000 meters," Vsevolod Cherepanov explained. "At the same time, the studied extract is not cytotoxic – that is, it does not have a negative effect on the functioning of the cell."
What this snake–tail is special about - FEFU employees have yet to find out. At the next stage, the researchers plan to identify the so–called "magic bullet" - a small molecule, the active substance in the ophiura, in order to synthesize it in the laboratory. It will be very difficult to cultivate a snake–tail, scientists note – it must be grown under pressure, as at a depth of 3,000 meters, and shallow–water relatives of ophiura are already known to be toxic.
Artem Blagodatsky (FEFU School of Biomedicine), Alexander Koval (University of Lausanne, Switzerland), Vladimir Kharlamenko (National Scientific Center of Marine Biology of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences) also take part in the study. The project is led by the Vice–rector for Medical Affairs of FEFU - Director of the School of Biomedicine Yuri Khotimchenko and the head of the Laboratory of Pharmacology of Natural Compounds Vladimir Katanaev.
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