Scientists Create Cancer-Killing Fungus

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Scientists Create Cancer-Killing Fungus

August 25, 2006 10:30 a.m. EST

http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7004651037

Cherian - All Headline News Staff Writer

Washington DC (AHN) - Researchers have found a way to create cancer-

killing compounds from a fungus. For the first time scientists have

been able to synthesize a cancer-killing compound named rasfonin in

high enough quantities to learn how it works.

Extracted from the fungus, trichurus terrophius, the chemicals fool

the tumor cells into " suicide " and leaves healthy cells unharmed.

K. Boeckman, professor of chemistry told Asia News

International, " In 2000, scientists in Japan discovered that this

compound might have some tremendous potential as a prototype

anticancer agent, but no one has been able to study or develop it

because it's so hard to get enough of it from natural sources. "

He added, " You either grow the fungus that makes it, or you go

through a complicated chemical synthesis process that still yields

only a minute amount... Now, after five years of effort, we've

worked out a process that lets researchers finally produce enough

rasfonin to really start investigating how it functions, and how we

might harness it to fight cancer. "

Researchers from Chiba University and the University of Tokyo

discovered a compound in fungi in 2000; these compounds selectively

killed cells depending on whether or not they contained a gene known

as ras - one of the first genes found to cause cancer. They ended up

discovering rasfonin, a compound that would be able to knock out ras-

dependent cancers, i.e. pancreatic cancer.