Scientists, including an Indian-origin researcher, have discovered that gossypin - a naturally-occurring substance found in fruits and vegetables - can help treat melanoma, the most deadly type of skin cancer.
"We identified gossypin as a novel agent with dual inhibitory activity towards two common mutations that are the ideal targets for melanoma treatment," said researcher Hareesh Nair from Texas Biomedical Research Institute.
"Our results indicate that gossypin may have great therapeutic potential as a dual inhibitor of mutations called BRAFV600E kinase and CDK4, which occur in the vast majority of melanoma patients," he said.
"They open a new avenue for the generation of a novel class of compounds for the treatment of melanoma," he added.
Nair and his colleagues found that gossypin inhibited human melanoma cell proliferation, in vitro, in melanoma cell lines that harbour the two mutations.
Gossypin stunted activities of the mutated genes, possibly through direct binding with them.
It also inhibited the growth of various human melanoma cells. In addition, gossypin treatment for 10 days of human melanoma cell tumours with the mutations transplanted into mice reduced tumour volume and increased survival rate.
Further studies are planned by Nair's team to understand how the body absorbs gossypin and how it is metabolised.
The study was published in the journal Molecular Cancer Therapeutics.
