Dirty old mine has rich seam of drugs

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Dirty old mine has rich seam of drugs

12:10 15 July 2006

NewScientist.com news service

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn9553-dirty-old-mine-has-rich-

seam-of-drugs.html

New Scientist (subscription) - UK

EVERY cloud has a silver lining. A contaminated lake designated

hazardous is turning out to be a source of novel chemicals that

could help fight migraines and cancer.

" It's exciting to know that something toxic and dangerous might

contain something of value, " says Stierle, a chemist at the

University of Montana in Butte.

Berkeley Pit Lake, also in Butte, filled with groundwater after the

copper mine closed in 1982. Dissolved metal compounds such as iron

pyrites give the lake a pH of 2.5 that makes it impossible for most

aquatic life to survive. In 1995 Stierle discovered novel forms of

fungi and bacteria in the lake. More recently her team has found a

strain of the pithomyces fungi producing a compound that binds to a

receptor that causes migraines and could block headaches, while a

strain of penicillium fungi makes a different compound that inhibits

the growth of lung cancer cells.

This week they reveal that a novel compound called berkelic acid

from another new strain of penicillium fungus reduces the rate of

ovarian cancer cell growth by 50 per cent (Journal of Organic

Chemistry, vol 71, p 5357).

Stierle is rushing to identify more of these extremophile creatures

before the toxic site is cleaned up.