Cancer Treatment

About

Background Green and black teas have attracted a great deal of interest for their putative anti-cancer prevention and treatment activities. The anti-oxidant and anti-cancer activity of teas is believed to be attributed to flavonoids, also known as and more specifically catechins.  One of the major and best studied catechin in green tea which has been reported to exhibit therapeutic properties is epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). EGCG is highly unstable and insoluble and therefore not an ideal agent for cancer treatment and prevention in its native form.  As the need for new and effective pharmaceuticals continues to grow, there is also concern over the environmental impact of producing toxic materials, intermediates, byproducts, and solvents during the large scale production of new pharmaceuticals.  This technology addresses the need for new methods for synthesizing biocompatible, stable, soluble catechin with improved biological activity. Moreover there is a need for methods of synthesizing new chemotherapeutics using methods that are single step and environmentally benign. Technology Despite the known therapeutic potential, the natural monomeric forms of catechins have failed in phase I and II clinical trials due to their instability and low solubility in biological fluids.  Our researchers have developed environmentally benign techniques for modifying an active component of green tea that makes it remarkably stable, soluble and effective against a range of different human cancer cells.  The innovation of this technology is the conversion of natural monomeric catechin into a more stable oligo-catechin. This is achieved using naturally occurring enzymes to “stitch together” green tea catechins yielding polycatechins that are very effective in growth inhibiting and killing human cancer cells.  The polymerized catechins possess higher anti-cancer potency when compared to naturally occurring monomers in side by side testing studies and they are also soluble in biocompatible solvents such as water and ethanol. These polycatechins obtained by simple semi-synthetic produced using one-step routes than monomeric natural catechins. Advantages The synthetic building blocks soluble poly(catechins) possess greater anti-cancer activity over the naturally occurring monomers, and are more stable and have been synthesized by environmentally friendly synthetic routes. The polycatechins can be applied in a wide range of medical applications.