Researchers find that sea corals are a source of a sought-after 'anti-cancer' compound The ocean floor is riddled with mysteries, but scientists have just discovered one of its best-kept secrets. For the last 25 years, researchers have been looking for the source of a natural chemical that has show
Researchers proved that sea corals are a source of eleutherobin, a chemical with anti-cancer properties.The ocean floor is riddled with mysteries, but scientists have just discovered one of its best-kept secrets. For the last 25 years, researchers have been looking for the source of a natural chemical that has shown promise in preliminary studies for treating cancer.
The breakthrough opens the door to generating the compound in big enough quantities for rigorous testing, which could one day result in a new cancer-fighting tool. Corals aren’t the only animals that harbor potential therapeutics. Nature is crawling with snakes, spiders, and other animals known to carry chemicals with healing properties. Yet that compounds from soft corals offer distinct advantages for drug development, Schmidt says.
In the decades after, scientists searched but could not find the fabled “holy grail” chemical in the quantities needed for drug development and couldn’t remedy the problem without understanding how the chemical was made. Dogma had it that, similar to other kinds of marine life, the chemical was synthesized by symbiotic organisms that lived inside the animals.
Solving the mystery seemed a job made for Scesa. As a boy growing up in Florida, the ocean was his playground, and he spent countless hours exploring its depths and wildlife. In graduate school, he developed a penchant for organic chemistry and combined the two interests to better understand the chemical diversity of the seas.
“It’s like going into the dark and looking for an answer where you don’t know the question,” remarks Schmidt.
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