The key to curing skin cancer may lie in one of the most remote, inhospitable places on Earth.
Scientists have found a species of sea squirt in Antarctica that produces a bacterium containing a toxic compound that not only kills melanoma cells, but – crucially – is not harmful to other human cells.
“That selectivity is critical in drug development because you want to treat the disease without harming the patient,” said Bill Baker, University of South Florida (USF) chemistry professor, who is co-leading the research.
An estimated 57,000 people die of melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer, every year, a figure that could rise to 96,000 by 2040.
The highest rates are found among people with fair skin in Australia and New Zealand, then Western Europe, but the cure may lie much further south.
Sea squirts, also known as ascidians, are sac-like marine invertebrates that tend to live on sloped sea beds.
Those in Antarctica, like much of the animal life on the continent, have evolved over millions of years to cope with the harsh conditions there, producing chemical defences that can deter predators and disease.
A team from USF – along with scientists from Desert Research Institute and Scripps Institution of Oceanography – spent six weeks in the Antarctic collecting the creatures down to about 80 feet under the ice, a mission complicated by changing seas, poor visibility and the occasional leopard seal.
Now back on dry land, those researchers are looking into the DNA, chemistry and biology of the sea squirts, a process that could take years.
“This research is important both environmentally and medically,” Baker said. “Understanding the source and function of this compound is critical if we hope to develop it into a drug.”
Sea squirts are far from the only unusual creature to offer a solution to overcoming cancer. For example, the naked mole-rat might not be blessed with good looks, but it appears to be completely immune to cancer, though it remains unclear why.
Meanwhile researchers in the US found that scorpion venom contains a compound that can help fight the most aggressive kind of brain cancer.
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