{"id":98713,"date":"2025-01-22T12:43:40","date_gmt":"2025-01-22T17:43:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=98713"},"modified":"2025-01-22T17:20:41","modified_gmt":"2025-01-22T22:20:41","slug":"research-retrosopective-looking-to-nature-to-treat-disease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2025\/01\/research-retrosopective-looking-to-nature-to-treat-disease\/","title":{"rendered":"RESEARCH RETROSOPECTIVE: Looking to nature to treat disease"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article is part of a monthly series celebrating research breakthroughs and successes at Brock University over the past\u00a0<\/em>60 years<\/em><\/a>. To read other stories in the series, visit\u00a0<\/em>The Brock News<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

For most people, the Madagascar periwinkle makes a lovely addition to a home garden. For Vincenzo De Luca, the pink-flowered plant is a powerful weapon against cancer.<\/p>\n

When De Luca became Brock University\u2019s first Canada Research Chair (CRC) in 2001, he was on a mission to explore how vinblastine, a plant toxin in the Madagascar periwinkle that has been shown to stop cancer cell division, could be harnessed to treat the disease.<\/p>\n

The then-Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Plant Biotechnology and his team identified up to 40 genes involved in the production of vinblastine, and he says biologists have now transferred his genetic pathway \u2014 a sequential series of steps that genes control to bring about a certain result \u2014 to yeast, which forms a base ingredient for numerous medicines.<\/p>\n

\u201cResearchers all over the world are now using genomics to identify related genes in thousands of other plant species,\u201d says the Professor Emeritus of Biological Sciences. They don\u2019t have to start where we started \u2014 from the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n

De Luca\u2019s work, and CRC appointment, helped shape a new direction in Brock research focused on developing treatments for human disease.<\/p>\n

Prior to De Luca\u2019s arrival, then-Associate Professor of Chemistry James McNulty had been studying an anti-cancer alkaloid called pancratistatin found in some bulbs of the Amaryllis family of plants. Alkaloids are naturally occurring chemical compounds involved in many physiological processes.<\/p>\n

Because it occurs in extremely low concentrations in the bulbs, McNulty and his team were also studying how to create a chemical compound similar to pancratistatin.<\/p>\n

In 2003, McNulty made the move to McMaster University as the late Tom\u00e1\u0161 Hudlick\u00fd, one of North America\u2019s top organic chemists, joined Brock to became Tier 1 CRC in Organic Synthesis and Biocatalysis.<\/p>\n

In 2017, Hudlick\u00fd and his team, which included McNulty, published breakthrough research<\/a> testing out a pancratistatin-like compound Hudlick\u00fd created.<\/p>\n

The team found his compound killed cancer cells in 20 different types of cancer while leaving healthy cells intact.<\/p>\n

Hudlick\u00fd patented several variations of his compound and also created synthetic versions of morphine and drugs similar to the influenza drug Tamiflu.<\/p>\n

More recent drug development research at Brock has focused on looking inside the human body for answers.<\/p>\n

Professor of Health Sciences Newman Sze has come up with a groundbreaking immunotherapy therapy<\/a> that could be a future drug to clear up damaged proteins associated with aging and age-related diseases.<\/p>\n

He and his team engineered an antibody stimulating the immune system to clear out proteins in tissues that had been damaged by isoDGR, an age-related process that triggers chronic inflammation and tissue degeneration.<\/p>\n

Uncontrolled chronic inflammation, in turn, can lead to conditions such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, Type 2 diabetes, arthritis and Alzheimer\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n

Sze, the Tier 1 CRC in Mechanisms of Health and Disease, says his work offers hope for treating age-related diseases \u201cin the natural way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur immune system is designed to protect and repair the body by addressing damage and threats,\u201d he says. \u201cBy engineering specific antibodies to target damaged proteins, we\u2019re enhancing its ability to do what it does best, heal the body by itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other leading-edge drug development research includes:<\/p>\n