Canadian scientists hope new research will yield magic bullet in cancer fight

MONTREAL ? Is this the elusive magic bullet that cancer researchers have been searching for after all these years?

A natural anti-aging, fat-burning compound has been found to kill breast-cancer and brain-tumour cells while sparing healthy ones ? at least in cell cultures in the lab, according to new research by a team of Montreal and Saskatchewan scientists.

The compound, called lithocholic acid (LCA), is naturally produced in the liver for digestion, helping to turn fat into energy. But scientists have found that LCA also possesses potential life-extending properties.

Vladimir Titorenko, the research chair in genomics, cell biology and aging at Concordia University, had already proved in a previous study that LCA can extend the lifespan of aging yeast.

Titorenko and his colleagues then turned their attention to human cell cultures that were treated with LCA. To their surprise, LCA spared healthy cells while triggering apoptosis ? or cell death ? in cancerous cells.

"This discovery is significant because LCA is a natural compound, and to my knowledge, the first natural compound which in cell cultures selectively kills cancer cells of three different types and doesn't kill normal cells," Titorenko told The Montreal Gazette.

The study, published in the journal Oncotarget, demonstrated that LCA kills cultured human breast cancer cells as well as neuroblastoma cell lines. Neuroblastoma is a cancer that forms in the nerve tissue, often striking in early childhood.

The researchers, including those from McGill University, the Jewish General Hospital and the University of Saskatchewan, were able to eradicate cultured rat glioma cells. A glioma is a type of malignant brain tumour.

The research is part of a new wave of so-called biological therapies that are based on much-better understanding of genetics and cell biology than the older generation of severely toxic chemotherapy. In the case of LCA, its weapon is apoptosis, programmed cell death.

Apoptosis occurs all the time in the body: when aged cells are unable to perform their normal function they are programmed to die. Some observers have described this process as cell suicide. Apoptosis also can also arise when a cell is invaded by a virus. And finally, apoptosis can occur as a check against abnormal cell growth.

Since LCA is an anti-aging compound ? making cells more resistant to apoptosis or cell death ? one would surmise that it would extend the life of cancer cells. But the researchers observed the anti-aging effect only in normal, healthy cells and the exact opposite in cancer cells.

The researchers are now testing LCA in lab mice, and the preliminary results are positive. But Titorenko said that clinical trials are years away, noting that it's one thing to cure cancer in a Petri dish and quite another to do so in humans without causing serious side effects.

"There might be a beneficial effect for the entire organism, but at the same time we must be definitely very cautious," he added. "We need to carry out additional studies."

aderfel@montrealgazette.com

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Source: http://feeds.canada.com/~r/canwest/F7791/~3/dgOh29jtfLw/story.html

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