Herbal ingredient kills kidney cancer cells

Medicinal Plant: Herbal agent kills kidney cancer cells

03/18/2015

Kidney cancer is one of the rarer cancers in Germany. Since he, like other cancers, initially does not trigger any typical symptoms for him, a diagnosis often comes late. This cancer is usually treated surgically. In the future, it may also be possible to use a herbal medicine that kills kidney cancer cells.

Kidney cancer is one of the rarer cancers
Every year around 15,500 people in Germany contract kidney cancer. Above all, older people and men are more affected than women. The risk factors include smoking, alcohol consumption, high blood pressure and overweight or obesity. Like other cancers, kidney cancer initially does not cause symptoms typical of it. If it comes to complaints such as flank pain, unexplained weight loss, constant fatigue, kidney pain or blood in the urine, the disease is usually already well advanced. Kidney cancer is treated surgically in most cases. Maybe a herbal drug could help in the future.

Medicinal plant from Africa
Again „Information Service Science“ (idw) reported, Phyllanthus engleri in his home in southern Africa has long been considered a medicinal plant. Above all, the shrub or small tree formerly belonging to the milkweed family grows in the dry savanna areas in Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa. The roots of the plant are used in Tanzania as a remedy for epilepsy, the chewing of leaves and fruits to help against cough and abdominal pain. And a broth of roots should even be effective against schistosomiasis and gonorrhea. However, the plant also contains strong toxins that can lead to deadly poisoning.

Intoxicating conditions in cats
In 2009, American scientists extracted over 30 substances from Phyllanthus engleri and analyzed their effectiveness on cancer cells. A variant of Englerin-A from the bark of the tree is therefore particularly effective against kidney cancer cells and some other cancers. Prof. Dr. Mathias Christmann from the Free University in Berlin succeeded in producing this complex compound synthetically. An ingredient of the oil of catnip (Nepeta cataria) served as a starting material: the so-called nepetalactone - a substance that causes intoxicating states of excitation in cats.

Cells die within a few minutes
It has been unexplored how Englerin-A kills cancer cells. A variant of the enzyme protein kinase C was until recently regarded as the putative target protein of Englerin-A. But researchers from the Max Planck Society have now discovered that cells that respond particularly well to Englerin-A do not possess this enzyme variant. The scientists therefore focused on a family of calcium channels in the cell membrane of kidney cells, the so-called TRPCs (transient receptor potential channels). Different kidney cancer cells produce different amounts of these channels. The idw reports that the measurements showed that addition of Englerin-A increases the calcium concentration within the cells to such an extent that they die within a few minutes.

Maybe suitable as a cancer drug
„We studied cancer cells that produce a lot of TRPC4. These cells are particularly sensitive to Englerin-A. In cells that do not produce TRPC4 or have normal levels of TRPC4, calcium levels do not increase as much. Therefore, these cells do not die“, said Slava Ziegler from the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology. However, scientists do not yet know whether overproduction of TRPCs is the sole cause of the death of cancer cells. Englerin-A probably acts specifically on cancer cells in the kidney. „This feature is a great advantage over other anticancer drugs, as it could potentially prevent side effects on healthy cells“, explained Herbert Waldmann, who researches, among other things, the use of natural products for drug development at the Dortmund Max Planck Institute. In cooperation with the Lead Discovery Center in Dortmund, the researchers want to investigate over the next few years whether Englerin-A is suitable as a cancer drug. (Ad)