Glioblastoma is one of the most serious brain diseases known. More than 45% of brain cancers are gliomas. Only half of glioblastoma patients respond to the FDA-approved chemotherapy Temozolomide (TMZ).
Even for those patients, the cancer cells quickly evolve resistance. Most patients pass away within 12 to 16 months after diagnosis, and few make it beyond five years. Now a glimmer of hope for patients comes from an unlikely place: Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where scientists at the non-profit Brain Chemistry Labs have been studying molecules found in violets.
Violets produce a dazzling suite of small circular peptides called cyclotides. They roughly appear in shape "like floppy frisbees," says Dr. Samantha L.
Gerlach. "They have been found active in the test tube against certain types of human cancer cells." Disulfide crosslinks which maintain the shape of cyclotides may help them create pores in the membranes of cancer cells.
Within the plant, cyclotides provide protection against insect herbivores, fungal infections, and viruses. Cyclotides were originally discovered from an herbal tea used by indigenous people in Africa to ease the course of childbirth. The tea was made from a plant they call kalata-kalata and which scientists call Oldenlandia affinis .
An international team led by scientists in Jackson Hole announced last week in the Swiss journal biomedicines that the cyclotide kalata B1 turbocharges the activity of the chemotherapy TMZ, decreasing the amount necessary to kil.