Coral reefs may have key to cancer cure: Study

New Delhi: For decades, scientists have been looking for that elusive cure to cancer. Though humankind has made several strides in this direction, cancer still accounts for nearly 10 million or one in six deaths globally every year, according to the World Health Organization. And now, scientists at the University of Utah, United States, have discovered a natural anti-cancer chemical in sea corals off the Florida coast, in what is being considered a significant step in the fight against cancer. The chemical called eleutherobin is made by easy-to-find soft and flexible corals resembling underwater plants. 

Back in 1990s, eleutherobin was identified in a rare coral off Australia, but since then, marine scientists have been unable to find it in high enough quantities for lab tests. According to researchers, the “holy grail” chemical is used by corals as a defence against predators, but it can also inhibit the growth of cancer cells. 

The University of Utah team, led by Eric Schmidt, professor of medicinal chemistry, and comprising Paul Scesa, postdoctoral scientist and first author, and Zhenjian Lin, assistant research professor, is now trying to recreate the chemical in the laboratory.  

The first major challenge was the belief that similar to other kinds of marine life, the chemical was synthesised by symbiotic organisms that lived inside the animals. “It didn’t make sense. We knew that corals must make eleutherobin,” Scesa was quoted as saying in a University of Utah press release. 

“The next step was to find out whether the coral’s genetic code carried instructions for making the compound. Advances in DNA technology had recently made it possible to rapidly piece together the code of any species. The difficulty was, the scientists didn’t know what the instructions for making the chemical should look like,” the press release added. 

“They addressed the problem by finding regions of coral DNA that resembled genetic instructions for similar types of compounds from other species. After programming bacteria grown in the lab to follow coral DNA instructions specific to the soft coral, the microorganisms were able to replicate the first steps of making the potential cancer therapeutic.” 

The scourge of cancer 

In a recent report, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said the number of Indians suffering from cancer is expected to increase to 29.8 million in 2025. At present, it is 26.7 million. The leading cancers among Indians are lung cancer and breast cancer, with each accounting for over 10 per cent of total cases. 

According to a study by “The Lancet Oncology”, India reports over 1.3 million cancer cases every year, accounting for nearly 8 per cent of the total deaths. Sedentary lifestyles, pollution, obesity, and increasing tobacco and alcohol consumption are said to be the major reasons behind rising cancer cases in the country.