The agent, silvestrol, is a natural compound derived from the twigs, fruit, and bark of the Aglaia species of tree, found in central Borneo, Indonesia, Malaysia, and some Pacific islands.
It has been used as a traditional medicine in Malaysia for many years, usually to treat digestive disorders, but never as a cancer therapy.
Researchers from Ohio State University, who have been working on silvestrol since 2004, discovered that silvestrol kills cancer cells in mice, possibly paving the way to treatment for human cancers in the near future.
Alan Douglas Kinghorn, a senior researcher at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, and leading silvestrol specialist, who gave the compound its name, says silvestrol has shown “very good initial results in models of B-cell malignancies, such as acute lymphoblastic leukemia and mantle cell lymphoma.”
Silvestrol was also found to inhibit the growth of lung, breast, and prostate cancer cells, and appears to cause no damage to normal immune system cells — a common problem with current cancer treatments for leukemia.
Kinghorn explained that silvestrol acts as a “translation inhibitor,” meaning it interferes with cancer cell multiplication. “This works in cancer cells by slowing their growth by disrupting processes that lead to the generation of new proteins,” he explained.
The team are currently doing tests on animals and models, and hope to start clinical trials in humans in three to four years.
To expedite further research and development of silvestrol, the State of Ohio signed an agreement with the Malaysian-run Sarawak Biodiversity Center (SBC), giving the university the rights to SBC’s patent on silvestrol.
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