14 DAY TRIAL // Michael Egan at TransMolecular, a company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, led a study designed to show how cancerous cells would react when subjected to radiations carried by a certain non-toxic compound in scorpion venom.
The researcher came up with the idea after noticing that the particular substances were attracted to cancer cells in patients that were stung by the Leiurus quinquestriatus scorpion. After isolating it, he then proceeded to irradiating the sample, and then injected it in a cancerous tumor. Results showed that the venom successfully carried the radiation particles to the very spot of the infection.
This is very important because most of the problems chemotherapy poses in current cancer treatments are that it cannot focus its effects on just the cancer-affected area, but instead also damages surrounding healthy tissue, weakening it and thus increasing the risk for cancer to spread outwards.
According to the researcher, this special scorpion, which lives mostly in the Middle East, has a very distinctive feature from all other scorpions. Among its powerful toxins, its venom also contains a peptide, strings of polymers which bind α-amino acids, which are non-toxic to human, but that connect to cancerous cells when they detect them.
Although the first 59 patients the substance was tested on died by the time the study was completed, those who received higher doses outlived the others by at least 3 months. Researchers at the University of Illinois are currently trying to determine what concentrations to use for combating brain cancer. Also, they strive to find out if the serum can track and annihilate secondary cancer tumors as well, other than the main primary ones.
Over the past few weeks, more and more tests have been started on people in inoperable final stages of brain cancer, as doctors attempt to decipher the way the peptide works and how to emulate it using chemicals, for further studies.