Researchers make vitamin E offshoot a potent cancer killer

Researchers here have learned how a derivative of vitamin E causes the death of cancer cells. The researchers then used that knowledge to make the agent an even more potent cancer killer.


The compound, called vitamin E succinate, or alpha tocopheryl succinate, is taken by some people as a nutritional supplement, mainly for its antioxidant properties. In addition, it has a weak ability to kill cancer cells, and it has been tested as a cancer chemopreventive agent.

The substance kills cancer cells by causing them to undergo a natural process known as programmed cell death, or apoptosis. Until now, no one knew how the agent caused this to happen.

These findings answer that question and also indicate that the molecule’s antitumor activity is separate from its antioxidant effect.

The study, led by researchers with The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC-James), is published in the April 28 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

“Our findings could lead to a potent chemopreventive agent that has both strong anticancer and antioxidant properties,” says principal investigator Ching-Shih Chen, professor of pharmacy and of internal medicine and a researcher with the OSUCCC-James.

“Such an agent might help reduce the risk of prostate, colon and other cancers.”

Chen and his collaborators found that vitamin E succinate works by blocking a protein called Bcl-xL. The protein, which is made by healthy cells, is often present at abnormally high levels in cancer cells and protects them from dying when they should.

Using computer modeling, the researchers found that the vitamin E derivative works because it lodges in a groove in the structure of the Bcl-xL protein, disabling it.

However, the vitamin E molecule has a long, coiled, protruding tail that keeps the molecule from fitting tightly, and more effectively, into the groove.

“Once we identified how the agent and the protein interact, we asked how we could improve that interaction,” Chen says.

The scientists found that a relatively simple process of altering the molecule’s structure – basically cutting the tail short – allowed a tighter fit and improved the agent’s ability to kill cancer cells by five- to ten-fold in laboratory tests.

“Overall, out findings are proof of the principle that this drug can kill cancer cells very effectively but does very little damage to healthy cells,” Chen says.

Chen is also the Lucius A. Wing chair of cancer research and therapy at the OSUCCC-James and the Kimberly professor of pharmacy

Funding from the National Cancer Institute supported this research.

Media Contact

Darrell E. Ward EurekAlert!

More Information:

http://www.osumc.edu

All latest news from the category: Health and Medicine

This subject area encompasses research and studies in the field of human medicine.

Among the wide-ranging list of topics covered here are anesthesiology, anatomy, surgery, human genetics, hygiene and environmental medicine, internal medicine, neurology, pharmacology, physiology, urology and dental medicine.

Back to home

Comments (0)

Write a comment

Newest articles

Lighting up the future

New multidisciplinary research from the University of St Andrews could lead to more efficient televisions, computer screens and lighting. Researchers at the Organic Semiconductor Centre in the School of Physics and…

Researchers crack sugarcane’s complex genetic code

Sweet success: Scientists created a highly accurate reference genome for one of the most important modern crops and found a rare example of how genes confer disease resistance in plants….

Evolution of the most powerful ocean current on Earth

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current plays an important part in global overturning circulation, the exchange of heat and CO2 between the ocean and atmosphere, and the stability of Antarctica’s ice sheets….

Partners & Sponsors