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Cancer fighter Artemisinin is actually Wormwood

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* Health and Healing *

Sunday, April 21, 2002 8:43 AM

Cancer fighter Artemisinin is actually Wormwood

 

 

- http://www.msnbc.com/news/667259.asp#BODY -

 

IN LABORATORY experiments, the compound killed within 16 hours virtually

all human breast cancer cells exposed to it in the test tube, reports Henry

Lai, a bioengineering researcher at the University of Washington. Just as

importantly, he says, nearly all of the normal cells exposed to it were

still alive.

And a dog with a type of bone cancer known as osteosarcoma so severe that

it couldn't walk across the room made a complete recovery within five days

of receiving the treatment. X-rays showed the animal's tumor " had basically

disappeared, " says Lai, adding that he believes the dog is still alive two

years later.

" Not only does [the drug] appear to be effective, but it's very selective, "

Lai says. " It's highly toxic to the cancer cells, but has a marginal impact

on normal cells. "

 

 

 

So what is this " novel " anti-cancer compound? It's called artemisinin - and

actually, it isn't new at all. Chinese folk practitioners extracted it from

the plant Artemesia annua L., commonly known as wormwood, thousands of

years ago for use in the treatment of malaria, Lai says.

 

After a " secret recipe " for the treatment was discovered on a stone tablet

in the tomb of a prince of the Han Dynasty during an archaeological dig in

the 1970s, artemisinin re-emerged as a therapy for the mosquito-borne

disease, Lai recalls. In fact, a purified form of the plant compound is now

the drug of choice for treating malaria in many areas, particularly where

chloroquine-resistant strains have emerged, he says.

 

 

 

 

WHY IT WORKS

Experiments into why artemisinin works as an anti-malaria agent led to its

tests as an anti-cancer drug. The key turned out to be a shared

characteristic of the malaria parasite and dividing cancer cells: high iron

concentrations.

When artemisinin - or any of its derivatives - comes into contact with

iron, a chemical reaction ensues, spawning charged atoms that chemists call

free radicals. In malaria, the free radicals attack and bind with cell

membranes, Advertisement

breaking them apart and killing the single-cell parasite.

Cells, too, need iron to replicate DNA when they divide, Lai says. And

since cancer is characterized by out-of-control cell division, cancer cells

have much higher iron concentrations than do normal cells.

On their surfaces, cancer cells also have more so-called transferrin

receptors - cellular pathways that allow iron to enter - than healthy

cells. In the case of breast cancer, the cells have five to 15 times more

transferrin receptors on their surface than normal breast cells, Lai says.

 

 

And so entered the dash of logic: About seven years ago, Lai reasoned, why

not target cancer cells with the anti-malaria treatment? Working with

assistant research professor Narendra Singh, Lai devised a strategy and

obtained funding from the Breast Cancer Fund in San Francisco. The work

appears in the November issue of the journal Life Sciences.

 

THE ANTI-CANCER STRATEGY

 

The thrust of the strategy, according to Lai, is to pump up cancer cells

with even more iron and then introduce artemisinin to selectively kill them.

In the experiments, Lai subjected sets of both breast cancer cells and

normal breast cells to either:

A compound known as holotransferrin, which binds with transferrin

receptors to transport iron into cells and thus further increases the

cells' iron concentrations;

A water-soluble form of artemisinin; or

A combination of both compounds.

Cells exposed to just one of the compounds showed no appreciable effect,

Lai reports. But the response by cancer cells when hit with first

holotransferrin, then artemisinin, was dramatic, he says.

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After eight hours, three-fourths of the cancer cells were obliterated. By

16 hours later, nearly all the cancer cells were dead.

Just as importantly, he says, the vast majority of normal breast cells did

not die, showing the safety of the treatment.

The success is particularly noteworthy in that breast cancer cells that

were resistant to radiation were utilized in the experiment, Lai adds. " So

that means this approach might work for cancer resistant to conventional

therapy. "

As might be expected, more aggressive cancers such as pancreatic and acute

leukemia - which are characterized by more rapid cell division and thus

higher iron concentrations - respond even better, Lai says. In a separate

study, the therapy eliminated leukemia cells in the test tube within eight

hours, he says.

The next step, according to Lai, is further animal testing, followed by

human trials. First the patient would be given iron supplements to raise

iron concentrations in his or her cancer cells, he says, and then the

compound would be given in pill form.

While human tests are still years away, the treatment could revolutionize

the way some cancers - particularly aggressive, fast-growing ones - are

approached if it lives up to its early promise, he adds. But remember: Not

every drug that shows promise in the test tube pans out in human tests.

 

 

 

 

" The fascinating thing is that this was something the Chinese used

thousands of years ago, " Lai says. " We simply found a different

application. "

The application certainly makes sense. There's a wealth of research linking

iron and cancer: One study, for example, showed that three times as much

iron could be extracted from malignant breast tissue as from benign tissue,

according to Ralph Moss, author of the " Healing Choices " reports for people

with cancer. Elevated iron storage was found in 88 percent of the breast

cancer patients studied.

Given this shared characteristic of malaria and cancer cells, why did it

take so long to think of it? That, Lai says, is a mystery - " Maybe people

just don't think of simple ideas. "

 

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