Nature continues to offer unexpected leads in medicine, with researchers uncovering new compounds that may help address a range of difficult diseases.
One of these illnesses, breast cancer, may possibly be tackled using the venom of an Amazonian species of scorpion, researchers recently reported. The team at the University of São Paulo’s Ribeirão Preto School of Pharmaceutical Sciences (FCFRP-USP) in Brazil identified a molecule contained in the toxin of the Brotheas amazonicus scorpion that targets breast cancer in a similar way to some of the most commonly used chemotherapeutic agents.
The work is a collaboration between the National Institute for Amazonian Research and the Amazonas State University, and the combined team found two neurotoxins contained in scorpion venom that have immunosuppressive effects. But crucially, they also found a molecule in the venom of Brotheas amazonicus that seems to have anti-tumour properties. This molecule – BamazScplp1 – primarily triggers necrosis and clinical tests have shown that the impact on breast cancer cells is comparable to that of paclitaxel.
A short hop over to Qinghai University in China, where a team of researchers has recently discovered that a little-known desert plant used in traditional Chinese medicine successfully restored insulin function and stabilised metabolism in diabetic mice.
The humble Nitraria roborowskii Kom plant was found to not only stabilise blood sugar, but it also had an effect on other variables, such as oxidative stress and abnormal fat metabolism. The effect of the plant extract was to activate a key cellular signalling system that regulates glucose and energy processes.
Nitraria roborowskii Kom is a hardy shrub that can survive in some of the most hostile desert regions of China. It has been used for centuries by locals, but it is only in recent years that it has come under the microscope of clinical research.
In this collaboration between Qinghai University and the Northwest Institute of Plateau Biology, researchers set out to prove the plant’s efficacy in diabetes treatment, and they weren’t disappointed. Over a seven-week time period, the fruit of the shrub reduced fasting blood glucose levels by 30 to 40 per cent in diabetic mice, and the results improved with higher doses. Further, it enhanced insulin sensitivity by approximately 50 per cent compared with untreated animals. Moreover, the plant extract successfully balanced cholesterol and lowered oxidative stress markers by as much as 60 per cent – an impressive achievement for any single compound.
Dr Yue Huilan, a senior researcher on the project, commented: “These results are exciting because they suggest we might be able to treat diabetes more holistically. Instead of just lowering blood sugar like most medications, this plant extract appears to help the body regain its natural metabolic balance.”
If you want to dig deeper, that study was published in the Chinese Journal of Modern Applied Pharmacy.
Sticking with diabetes, slightly older research published in 2022 points to the sap from an Australian blushwood tree having the potential to combat antibiotic resistance. Of course, people with diabetes can suffer with chronic wounds and ulcers, which are often treated with antibiotics. However, as always, the threat of antibiotic resistance looms and this puts these patients at increased risk of infection.
Dr David Thomas, Cardiff University, UK, along with other UK colleagues, looked at the sap from the Fontainea picrosperma blushwood tree, which has incidentally previously been studied for its potential as a cancer treatment. Dairy calves and mice were used as animal models and the calves had their horns removed and the sap-based compound containing the molecule EBC-1013 was used to treat these wounds.
The team found that using this compound, 75 per cent of wounds healed after 28 days, in comparison with just 25 per cent of untreated wounds. In the mice, the wounds healed completely in five out of the seven rodents, while none of the wounds healed in the control group.
“In chronic wounds in diabetic mice, the semisynthetic compound EBC-1013 up-regulated host-defence peptides, altered cytokine expression, activated immune cells, and led to greater wound closure,” wrote the authors. “[These] results help uncover the mechanism by which epoxy-tiglianes promote wound healing and support further development of EBC-1013.”
Such research also strengthens the case for environmentalism. Nature continues to give us so much – the very least we can do is protect it.
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