Artemisinin has been used in the past as a
powerful anti-malarial herb, but it now has been proven to be a cancer-fighter,
too. When subjects in the published study were given an iron
supplement, which often accumulates in the breast tissue but especially so in
cancerous cells, the artemisinin was able to selectively target ‘bad’ cells and
leave ‘good’ cells alone.
“Taken together, our
results demonstrate that the artemisinin disruption of E2F1 transcription
factor expression mediates the cell cycle arrest of human breast cancer cells
and represents a critical transcriptional pathway by which artemisinin controls
human reproductive cancer cell growth.”
Iron accumulates in cancerous cells due to
special receptors that help them in cell division, called transferrin
receptors. Normal cells likely have these receptors as well, but cancerous
cells have them in greater abundance, and thus can be targeted by the
iron-artemisinin combination, like a 1-2 punch.
There have been many experiments now that prove
this sweet wormwood derivative can effectively eradicate disease in the
presence of iron. The extract has been used for thousand of years in China to
treat malaria. The malaria parasite cannot live in the presence of
artemisinin because they are iron-rich, but the treatment works just as well
for cancerous cells, too. Bioengineers Henry Lai and Narendra Singh of the
University of Washington, Seattle were the scientists who initially made this
discovery. This is yet another example of a natural herb causing cancerous
cell apoptosis.
While the sweet wormwood extract has been
somewhat difficult to obtain for a fair price for countless years, it is now on
its way to being mass-produced by biotech. Will the result be positive and
promising?
“It’s the volatility that really makes the
supply chain for this life-saving drug just a complete train wreck,” says Jack Newman, chief scientific officer of the
California-based biotech firm Amyris. ”When we first started talking about
this,” Newman says, “we gave it 1,000 to 1 odds of ever working. “
French drugmaker Sanofi is expected to make
50 to 60 tons of artemisinin each year, striving to supply enough demand for
the global market.
