New research by scientists at the University of Nottingham’s School of Pharmacy demonstrates how a chemical produced by a caterpillar fungus can help slow down the growth of cancer cells. Using high-throughput techniques, the research team measured the effects of cordycepin, which is produced by Cordyceps militaris—an orange fungus that infects caterpillars—on the activity of thousands of genes in multiple cell lines. The findings may lead to the development of new drugs against cancer.
The findings are published in FEBS Letters in an article titled, “Cordycepin generally inhibits growth factor signal transduction in a systems pharmacology study.”
Cordycepin has shown promise as a cancer medicine in a range of studies, but until now it has been unclear how it works.
In this study, the researchers compared the effects of cordycepin with those from other treatments deposited in databases and showed that it works by acting on the growth-inducing pathways of the cell in all cases.
By studying what happens to cordycepin inside the cell, the team confirmed that cordycepin is converted to cordycepin triphosphate, an analogue of the cell’s energy carrier ATP. Cordycepin triphosphate was shown to be the likely cause of the effects on cell growth, and therefore the molecule that can directly affect cancer cells.
Cornelia de Moor, PhD, in the School of Pharmacy at the University of Nottingham who led the research, explained: “We have been researching the effects of cordycepin on a range of diseases for a number of years and with each step we get closer to understanding how it could be used as an effective treatment. One of the exciting things to have been happening is that it has become easier and less expensive to do these very large experiments, so we were able to examine thousands of genes at the same time.”
“Our data confirms that cordycepin is a good starting point for novel cancer medicines and explains its beneficial effects. For instance, derivatives of cordycepin could aim to produce the triphosphate form of the drug to have the same effect. In addition, the data will help with monitoring the effects of cordycepin in patients, as our data indicate particular genes whose activity reliably responds to cordycepin, which could for instance be measured in blood cells,” concluded de Moor.
