"The active compound in a plant extract has shown promise for treating non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHLs), according to researchers.
The compound, withaferin A, is a steroidal lactone isolated from the Ayruvedic medicinal plant Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera)
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Withaferin A exhibited activity in several human B-cell lymphoma cell lines—the diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) cell lines LY-3, LY-10, and SudHL-6; the Burkitt lymphoma cell lines Raji and Ramos; and the mantle cell lymphoma cell line MINO.
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Further investigation revealed that withaferin A (in mice) induces cell-cycle arrest, prompts apoptosis, inhibits NF-kB nuclear translocation, and reduces the expression of pro-survival signals in B-cell lymphomas.
Th researchers are now testing withaferin A in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia."
Obviously early days yet, but isn't it encouraging that new plant extracts are still being identified that might one day become part of a treatment protocol that cures CLL and other NHLs or at least improves treatment responses, hopefully with less side effects.
Neil
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...this has been around in the lab since the 1970s... it has a quality like lenalidomide or thalidomide... prevents the growth of blood vessels to tumours... called angiogenesis.
Glad they are continuing research... no stone left unturned..
Ain't nature Great! Makes one pause to ponder the rate at which humans are destroying so much of it so quickly.
One of the lectures from a recent LRF Conference I attended in Brooklyn NY included a discussion of three natural botanic plant extracts i.e. Silvesterol, Pateamine A, and Hippursitanol. Silvesterol was discussed in some detail as having several desirable properties such as specificity in targeting MYC, an important signaling protein and hyper activated elF4E (eukaryotic translation initiator factor 4E) so why isn't it etiF4E ??? eternal mysteries abound in medical science nomenclature;-).
When natural botanics are found to be of potential medical use, one of the great hurdles is how a drug company can make money on a plant for which no patent can be obtained? I wonder how much of the 1 billion USD to bring a successful naturally based drug to market goes into finding a way to synthesize the active ingredient so it can be protected by patent? I and a lawyer, FL survivor, talked at some length with Dr. Hans-Guido Wendel who spoke about therapeutic possibilities of these plants in which he said that to extract roughly 2 oz of active ingredient cost his research lab $60,000 USD. When the lawyer asked how much to synthesize a marketable drug the Doc estimated 2 to 3 million USD. That is not that much money if the drug pans out.
Back to Silvesterol - So, is it an interest to the CLL community? Silvesterol is highly selective in wiping out Myc as an oncogene driver in many cancers. MYC is a family of proteins and for blood cancers, c-Myc is the most appropriate member.
The specificity for Silvesterol to target Myc without collateral targeting damage makes this a drug of high promise for those with active Myc in the pathology of their cancer. Myc or c-Myc is interesting in that it is evolutionarily highly conserved and yet is a potent carcinogen when dysfunctionally expressed. The literature connecting c-Myc to CLL is not strong, yet there is a link to c-Myc dysfunction in DLBCL so with many questions left unanswered to explain the heterogeneity of CLL the MYC genes might be a valid target for some CLL subtypes, especially when Richter's Syndrome or DLBCL enters the picture. mutated-unmuated.blogspot.com/ Type in "MYC" in the search box of the late Prof. Terry Hamblin for his thoughts.
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