Bacterium yields potential anti-cancer agent

August 29th, 2008  |  by  |  Published in Research News

illustration of leaf and molecule

A molecule produced by a plant bacterium may hold the clue to safer, more effective cancer treatment.

Working with an international team of researchers, André S. Bachmann, assistant professor at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Cancer Research Center of Hawaiʻi, demonstrated that the molecule, called Syringolin A (SylA in short), inhibits proteasome, a cellular “machine” involved in regulation of cell growth, in the test tube.

By targeting more rapidly dividing cancer cells, proteasome inhibitors limit damage to normal cells, according to their paper, published in the April 10, 2008, issue of Nature.

Bachmann’s research received funding from the Friends of the Cancer Research Center of Hawaiʻi, UH Mānoa’s Cell and Molecular Biology Graduate Program and a private donor.

Read the Nature abstract.


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