Register for Low-toxicity antimalarial drugs wipe out angiogenesis in laboratory assays
PharmacologyAugust 13, 2003
by Sonia Nichols, senior medical writer - Researchers in China have announced that at least two antimalarial drugs, artesunate and dihydroartemisin, suppress angiogenesis in laboratory studies.
Given the drugs' low toxicities, scientists said they may be viable candidates for treating human cancer.
Both artesunate (ART) and dihydroartemisin are artemisin derivatives. Huan-Huan Chen heads a medical team at Zhejiang University which looked at anticancer activity when ART and dihydroartemisin were administered to ovarian, cervical, uterus chorion, and embryo transversal cancer cell lines. The team also evaluated the drugs' effects in several angiogenesis assays.
Study data showed that dihydroartemisinin inhibited cancer cell growth better than ART did when the cells were treated with either agent for 48 hours (Inhibition of human cancer cell line growth and human umbilical vein endothelial cell angiogenesis by artemisin derivatives in vitro. Pharmacological Research, September 2003;48(3):231-236).
"We investigated the inhibitory effects of ART and dihydroartemisin on human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) proliferation by cell counting, migration into the scratch wounded area in HUVEC monolayers, and microvessel-tube-like formation on collagen gel," described Chen and coauthors.
Both drugs inhibited angiogenesis in a dose-dependent manner, with dihydroartemisin angiogenesis suppression being the most effective of the two.
"These results and the known low toxicity are clues that ART and dihydroartemisin may be promising novel candidates for cancer chemotherapy," the investigators concluded.
The corresponding author for this study is Huan-Huan Chen, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, College of Pharmacology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou Zhejiang 310031, People's Republic of China.
Key points reported in this study include:
1) The artemisin derivatives artesunate and dihydroartemisin are antimalarial drugs that present little harm to humans
2) Both therapies suppress cancer cell growth and angiogenesis in laboratory studies, with dihydroartemisin being the most potent of the two drugs
3) Artemisin and dihydroartemisin look promising for fighting human cancer This article was prepared by Health & Medicine Week editors from staff and other reports.
©Copyright 2003, via NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net
