TCMCANCER · Traditional Chinese Medicine in the Post-genomic era: identifying lead therapeutic compounds against cancer
FP7 — People (Marie Curie Actions)
- Duration
- 2009-03-01 → 2013-02-28
- EU contribution
- €237,600
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MC-IRSES
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Periodic Report Summary - TCMCANCER (Traditional Chinese Medicine in the Post-genomic era: identifying lead therapeutic compounds against cancer)
The objectives of this project were to: (1) select a number of purified and chemically defined compounds from a library of more than 3000 purified compounds derived from herbal traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) extracts, many of which are known to show anticancer activities; (2) identify a set of lead candidate compounds with anti-tumour activity by using high throughput screening technologies together with state of the art preclinical tumour models; (3) determine their novelty as putative therapeutic compounds; (4) determine their mechanism of action on the genomic level; (5) determine their pharmacological parameters; (6) determine their absorption mechanism and pharmacokinetic properties. In the first two years, in an exchange volume of 37 person months involving five early-stage and eight experienced scientists, 275 selected purified compounds were tested (using cytotoxicity tests and live cell observations) in various cancer cell lines; also 12 compounds from three different plant species were purified and the structures of nine of them could be determined by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), but none of them were novel. Among the tested compounds, 22 were found to exhibit medium to high cytotoxic activities in at least one cancer cell line. TGFbeta1 inhibitory assays were established and used to screen 129 of the 275 compounds. Of all the active compounds identified, those that will be available in suitable amounts for in vivo assays will be used in the last two years of the project to test their anti-cancer and pharmacological properties in mouse models.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
This application aims at identifying and characterizing a set of lead therapeutic compounds against cancer (breast, lung and brain), based on current knowledge from Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). TCM has a very long tradition in the prevention and treatment of a variety of diseases yet, in contrast to target-oriented Western medicine, TCM uses a holistic and synergistic approach, which can be very effective for complex medical problems. However, the exact composition of the compounds that exert the therapeutic effect is not known. As there is little understanding about the mechanisms of action of many TCM therapies, modern and multidisciplinary Biotech research (functional genomics/ systems biology) should be applied on appropriate and highly defined cancer models. The presented project will focus on the isolation and characterization of chemical compounds from TCM that show anti-tumoral efficacy. From a library of therapeutic compounds available, a set of lead therapeutic substances will be identified using high throughput screening technologies in appropriate preclinical cancer models. Moreover, their mechanism of action will be further studied using genome wide analyses. Finally, their therapeutic efficacy will be tested in appropriate animal models.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- LUXEMBOURG INSTITUTE OF HEALTH · StrassenCoordinatorLuxembourg
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union