Starfish may soon provide an unlikely treatment for inflammatory conditions such as asthma and arthritis, according to marine scientists.
Lurking in the seas of Scotland is an unlikely candidate for a medical breakthrough.
But scientists believe the starfish could hold the key to finding a new treatment for inflammatory conditions such as asthma, hay fever and arthritis.
The species they are interested in is the spiny starfish (Marthasterias glacialis), and in particular the slimy goo that covers its body.
The team says that chemicals in this coating could inspire new medicines.
While most man-made structures that are placed in the water rapidly get caked with a mixture of marine life, starfish manage to keep their surface clear.
Dr Charlie Bavington, from GlycoMar, a marine biotechnology company based at the Scottish Association for Marine Science in Oban, explained: “Starfish live in the sea, and are bathed in a solution of bacteria, larvae, viruses and all sorts of things that are looking for somewhere to live.
Starfish
“But starfish are better than Teflon: they have a very efficient anti-fouling surface that prevents things from sticking.”
And it is this non-stick property that has grabbed medical scientists’ attention, particularly in the field of inflammation.
The researchers believe this non-stick property could provide a vital new weapon against inflammatory illness.
These conditions are caused when the body’s natural response to infections accelerates out of control.
Infection-fighting white blood cells begin to build up in the blood vessels and stick to the sides, which can cause tissue damage.
Lead researcher Dr Charlie Bavington said the starfish slime could be used to coat the blood vessels which would let the white blood cells to flow easily.
‘It is a very similar situation to something sticking to a starfish in the sea,’ he told the BBC.
‘These cells have to stick from a flowing medium to a blood vessel wall, so we thought we could learn something from how starfish prevent this so we could find a way to prevent this in humans.’
This could reduce the amount of drugs patients would need to take, which often have unwanted side effects.
Professor Clive Page from King’s College Library, said: ‘The starfish have effectively done a lot of the hard work for us.
‘It has had billions of years in evolution to come up with molecules that do specific things.
‘We are learning all the time from nature about how to find new medicines.’
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The imaging of tumour growth in zebrafish has shed light on how newly formed cancer cells can co-opt the immune system into spreading the disease.
The work is leading the way for investigations into potential therapies for eliminating early-stage cancer in humans
Using different coloured fluorescent tags, scientists at the University of Bristol labelled immune cells and tumour-forming cells in the translucent zebrafish in order to track their behaviour and interactions by live cell imaging.
Tests showed that cancer cells are less likely to proliferate if white blood cells can be prevented from contacting the precursor cancer cells, suggesting that white blood cells have the ability to promote disease by providing some kind of growth signal.
Interestingly, the chemical compound that acts as a draw between the two sets of cells was shown here to be hydrogen peroxide – commonly used as a disinfectant or antiseptic, but also a natural by-product produced by the body”s metabolic process.
Paul Martin of the University of Bristol said, “By visualizing the earliest interactions between cancer cells and their host environment, we have shown that even from their earliest stages tumours don”t just avoid being destroyed by the immune system. Rather, they appear to court an immune response, co-opting the body”s innate immune system to aid and abet their growth.”
The team used a method to switch on the human oncogene, HRAS, in specific pigment cells (melanocytes) in the skin of early stage zebrafish embryos. Studies were carried out using zebrafish because they conserve many of the molecular and cellular components of tumour formation seen in mammals and are almost translucent, making it easy to see the cells as they move around and grow.
Researchers monitored the first hours and days of development and as the embryo grew, some of the cells were transformed, ie, made cancerous by HRAS. Those transformed cells were found to actively attract the innate immune cells.
The researchers got the same results, after inserting HRAS into different, mucous-secreting cells, and again when experimenting with a different oncogene, SRC. They discovered that the tumour cells produced hydrogen peroxide and that immune cells were drawn up the hydrogen peroxide gradient towards the cancer.
The researchers showed that the immune cells appear to engulf cancerous cells in a bid to destroy them. However, other cells formed cytoplasmic tethers linking them to cancerous cells and in some cases the cancerous cells appeared to drag the immune cells back when they started to leave the region.
In order to see whether the tumour was avoiding destruction or actually co-opting the immune cells, the researchers blocked the immune response in three different ways: they prevented the development of immune cells for the first three days of the zebrafish embryos” life, and separately, they used two different strategies to limit hydrogen peroxide production. In each case, immune cells failed to migrate to the cancer site. And each time, when the immune response was blocked, fewer cancer cells formed.
The findings were published in open access journal PLoS Biology.
The humble starfish is attracting attention from an unlikely source.
Scientists at Kings College London believe it may contain a solution to inflammatory conditions such as arthritis, which causes misery to millions of people.
Existing treatments, including steroids, can often cause unwanted side- effects.
Lurking in the Scottish seas is an unlikely candidate for a medical breakthrough, but scientists believe the creature could hold the key to a new treatment for medical conditions from asthma to arthritis, the BBC reports.
The species they are interested in is the spiny starfish (Marthasterias glacialis), and in particular the slimy goo that covers its body.
While most man-made structures that are placed in the water rapidly get caked with a mixture of marine life, the coating on the starfish keeps its surface clear.
Researchers say non-stick chemicals in the slime also stop the sticky build-up in blood vessels that lies at the heart of inflammatory diseases.
The team is now creating their own versions of these chemicals in the laboratory, which they say could form the basis of new medicines.