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After 20 years of research, scientists have deciphered the chemical code of an incredibly complex "antitumor antibiotic", recognized for its high efficacy against cancer cells and drug-resistant bacteria, and synthetically reproduced it in laboratory for the first time. time.
This major breakthrough and a world first could mark the beginning of a new era in the design and production of new antibiotics and anticancer agents.
The "super substance" – kedarcidin – was discovered in its natural form by a pharmaceutical company that had extracted it from a soil sample in India nearly 30 years ago. Soil is the natural source of all antibiotics developed since the 1940s, but for them to be developed as potential drug treatments, they must be produced by chemical synthesis.
Unlike many other antibiotics that focus only on destroying bacteria, kedarcidin is also able to harm tumor cells and has the potential to effectively treat cancer.
Kedarcidin has an incredible biological activity because it damages the DNA of the target, but also its structural complexity. It has been the subject of much research by scientists around the world, but because of its complex structure, it has not been possible to reproduce it in its current form. more complete and more accurate.
Dr. Martin Lear of the University of Lincoln, UK, and Professor Masahiro Hirama, based at Tohoku University in Japan, became the first scientists in the world to create a total synthesis of this extremely unstable natural product. Their results are published in The antibiotic journal of nature.
Dr. Martin Lear, a reader at the University of Lincoln's Faculty of Chemistry, explained, "After its discovery in the soil, it took 10 years to determine the molecular structure of kedarcidin." Its reactive core protected by an egg Scotch!
"In 1997, I began the long process of creating the kedarcidin kernel with Professor Hirama, who recently received the highest honor awarded to a scientist in Japan – pieces of the puzzle 20 years later we have finally solved the puzzle.
"This extraordinary journey has revealed new molecular insights and promising mechanisms for fighting cancer and drug-resistant bacteria, as well as challenging the frontiers of chemistry and biology." anticancer agents ".
It has been predicted that by the year 2050, an additional 10 million people will succumb each year to drug-resistant infections. The development of new antibiotics that can be used as a last resort when other drugs are ineffective is therefore a crucial area of study for health researchers around the world. This new study represents an important step in achieving this end goal.
The anticancer properties of kedarcidin also make it a fascinating subject for scientists exploring new ways to fight aggressive cancer tumors. Now it is possible to recreate the substance by synthesis, researchers will be able to better understand the mechanisms that make it so effective against leukemia and melanoma cells for example.
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Material provided by University of Lincoln. Note: Content can be changed for style and length.
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