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NEW YORK, Oct 15, 2004 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- U.S. scientists Friday said research on bacteria has led to the discovery of compounds that may inhibit cancer in humans.
Compounds derived from an antibiotic called actinonin, which inhibits an enzyme used by bacteria, were found to impede growth of human tumor cells, David Scheinberg and colleagues at the Sloan-Kettering Institute in New York report in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
Actinonin blocks the action of an enzyme called peptide deformylase or Pdf that previously had been thought to be exclusive to bacteria. Subsequent research showed Pdf was present in other organisms, including humans, thus indicating that actinonin might not be useful to treat parasitic infections in people as originally expected.
However, Scheinberg and colleagues had noticed that actinonin interfered with tumor growth and decided to take a closer look at that phenomena.
The researchers report they found actinonin-based compounds inhibited the growth of several human tumor cell lines in lab dishes and suppressed the growth of human tumor cells in mice. They say the findings suggest the compounds could prove useful as anti-cancer therapies.
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