Chemicals from a caterpillar-invading fungus blocks cancer growth factors
Burrowing into the brains of young caterpillars, Cordyceps militaris is a fungus with control in mind. Yet it also produces a “promising” natural chemical, cordycepin, shown to kill certain human cancer cells. Promising chemicals aren’t always practical or free from side effects, though, so establishing the underlying details is essential to their success in treating patients. Although Cordyceps has had a place in Chinese medicine for over 1500 years, cordycepin was first extracted from a bubbling mushroom broth in 1950. The intervening decades have revealed details carefully – challenged by the compound’s fast metabolism; cordycepin breaks down quickly inside living cells. Now, delving deeper into how cordycepin kills cells, scientists find exciting molecular clues: cordycepin is able to block growth factors that might otherwise help cancers grow, by guiding a set of intracellular signals known as mTOR. This information will be vital to fulfilling on the Cordyceps’ promise.
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