Could a cure for cancer be SLIMY?!
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.
Cancer researchers have tried everything under the sun to find a cure. But what about… under the sea?
The Australian white rock sea snail secretes a special slime containing chemicals called indoles. Some have anti-cancer properties!
Enter David Rudd from Southern Cross University and team. They isolated an indole called six-bromoisatin, or six-B-R. Then they treated mice with colorectal cancer with it for fourteen weeks.
And? Six-B-R prevented tumor progression! While it didn’t CURE the cancer, it stopped it from getting worse – without causing any further bodily damage!
Colorectal cancer is the THIRD most lethal cancer in the U-S! Rudd’s team hopes to refine six-B-R for people.
Let’s just hope they’re faster than a SNAIL’S pace! …sorry!
Reference: Rudd, D.A., Benkendorff, K., Chahal, C. et al. Mapping insoluble indole metabolites in the gastrointestinal environment of a murine colorectal cancer model using desorption/ionisation on porous silicon imaging. Sci Rep 9, 12342 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-48533-2