Cockles could be the holy grail of cancer treatment

Sugar from cockles is effective in the treatment of cancer

Scientists and physicians are constantly looking for new ways to treat cancer more effectively. British researchers now found that cockles could be the key to fighting cancer.

The researchers from the University of Salford in Manchester found in their recent research that cockles can be used to effectively treat cancer. The physicians published the results of their study in the English-language journal Marine Drugs.

Sugar from the mussels can prevent tumor cells from growing

Sugar, which can be extracted from these clams, is able to prevent various types of tumor cells from growing, say the experts. Cockles could be useful for treating children with cancer in the future because such a type of treatment is more tolerable and causes fewer side effects. Molluscs can be cheaper and just as effective as some traditional chemotherapeutic agents, the authors add.

What types of cancer have been treated?

Researchers tested the unusual type of therapy for leukemia, breast, lung and colon cancer tumors and then stated that their results were encouraging. But eating the cockles will not cure cancer. Specific sugars must first be isolated and converted into drugs before being injected into the body.

Sugar as effective as standard chemotherapy?

Cockles are a type of mollusks that resemble clams and contain sugars that can be used to stop the proliferation of tumor cells, say the physicians. The current study was performed on cancer cells isolated in a laboratory. The experts claim that cockle sugars might be about as effective against cancer as some standard chemotherapeutics and that only smaller doses are needed.

How can sugar from mussels protect against cancer??

This new form of medicine seems to work because specific sugars that can be extracted from the mollusks are able to bind to proteins found in cancerous tumors. When the sugar interacts with tumor cells, a so-called antiproliferative activity arises, explain the scientists. This means that these sugars prevent the cells from multiplying rapidly. The rapid proliferation of cells usually causes tumors to grow uncontrollably.

Further research is needed

The researchers were unable to explain exactly how sugar fights cancer cells, but further research is being done to find out. The strong anticancer activity of sugar from cockles has not previously been found in other types of sugar, which were also extracted from marine organisms. Mammalian polysaccharides (sugar) have long been the subject of cancer research experiments, explains study author Dr. David Pye from the University of Salford. The doctors have opted instead for shellfish, not least because they are much cheaper and easier to get and contain plenty of sugar. These have a different structure from which to derive a number of potential drugs, which, if further refined, have the potential to function as an alternative to conventional treatments.

Oral intake of sugar is not enough

Extracting a mixture of polysaccharides from cockles is a straightforward procedure and the influence of injection into tumors is very encouraging, says dr. Pye. Other unpublished research has shown that therapy can shrink tumors and slow their spread, the expert adds. However, the sugars need to be injected to develop their anti-cancer properties - oral intake is not enough.

Treatment especially useful for children

What is really significant is not so much the source of the sugar, but the fact that sugars of this chemical structure function effectively to a tolerable extent for children, explains the study author. Between two and three out of ten children in the UK who have been diagnosed with cancer are unlikely to survive adulthood, experts estimate. Many childhood anticancer drugs are diluted versions of adult medications that stop cell division. Since cell division is a central process in growth and development, these drugs have the children's health clearly disproportionately influenced, the expert continued.

What is optimal chemotherapy for children??

Optimized chemotherapy for children aims to maximize the destruction of the cancer while minimizing damage to normal cells and tissues. Sugar from cockles as a therapeutic treatment could help minimize the harmful side effects, the scientists hope. (As)