Mining Chinese traditional medicine for cancer
treatments
Possible applications of traditional
Chinese medicine in cancer treatments have been identified thanks to EU-funded
research. The research team targeted some 100 compounds exhibiting potential
anticancer activity. These are now being assessed through further research.
In a relatively short space of time,
the TCMCANCER project, which was completed in February 2013, has achieved
notable success.
“Over one hundred compounds
exhibiting anticancer activity in several cancer cell lines have been
identified,” says project coordinator André Steinmetz, a consultant at the
Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Oncology at Luxembourg’s Centre de
Recherche Public de la Santé (CRP-Santé). “Further research is now ongoing to
determine their activities in experimental animal models and to assess their
use in cancer treatments.”
Reassessing
cancer treatment
The project identified novel lead
compounds from medicinal plants with potential use in cancer chemotherapy.
“Most if not all of the drugs used in cancer chemotherapy have serious side
effects, which can affect healthy cells as well as essential body functions,”
explains Steinmetz. “Therefore, the search for and study of novel compounds
that specifically kill cancer cells but lack side effects is still necessary.”
The project focused on identifying
and characterising a set of lead therapeutic compounds against breast, lung and
brain cancer, based on current knowledge from traditional Chinese medicine.
This traditional medicine has a holistic and synergistic approach – in other
words, it doesn’t just treat the malady, but also addresses the body’s health
as a whole.
The most common therapies used in
traditional Chinese medicine include the use of plants such as herbs, mushrooms
and roots, and some manual therapies like acupuncture and massage. Common
therapies used on cancer patients include herbal medicine.
“This has been found to be very
effective in dealing with complex medical problems,” says Steinmetz. “However,
the exact composition of these compounds that exert these therapeutic effects
is not yet fully understood.”
This is why Steinmetz and his
colleagues were interested in bringing in researchers from outside the EU to
offer a fresh perspective.
The project focused on the isolation
and characterisation of chemical compounds from traditional Chinese medicine
that have been shown to demonstrate tumour-fighting properties.
In China today, almost three
quarters of cancer clinical trials involve a combination of traditional
medicine therapy and conventional cancer treatment. From this library of
available therapeutic compounds, the project team set out to identify the key
therapeutic substances, using high tech screening technologies in appropriate
preclinical cancer models.
http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/en/news/mining-chinese-traditional-medicine-cancer-treatments
No comments:
Post a Comment