• 5/7/2006
  • Milford, MA
  • Jon Brodkin
  • Milford Daily News (www.milfordailynews.com)

When Natick Labs chemist Ferdinando Bruno began researching potential uses for a component found in green tea, his goal was simple: build an efficient and light plastic battery to power equipment used on the battlefield.

Bruno never dreamed he would instead find a new cancer treatment that may heal patients without the painful side effects associated with most forms of chemotherapy.

His discovery, which is being pursued at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell with collaboration from U.S. Army scientists from Natick Labs, is showing promise in treating colorectal cancer and cancer of the breast, head, and neck.

The treatment, researchers say, is an example of “green chemistry” because it produces none of the toxic waste associated with other chemotherapy drugs.

“It’s very surprising that the drug works on these four diverse cancer types,” said Susan Braunhut, a cancer biologist at UMass-Lowell.

The chemotherapy drug is a long way from the market, as researchers have not yet begun testing it on animals. Tests on human cell lines have shown remarkable effectiveness killing cancer cells while appearing to do no harm to healthy cells, Braunhut said.

The project began around 2000 when Bruno tried to use catechin, a component of green tea, to replace certain parts of disposable batteries.

When used individually, the catechins, or building blocks, are vulnerable and easily degrade, Braunhut said. Bruno, however, joined them together in a novel way, using enzymes, to make them more stable and active.

After the catechins failed to work as a battery component, Bruno took a different tack because a friend told him catechin was known as an anti-cancer agent that lacked efficiency.

Bruno used his novel way of joining catechins together to study its efficiency in killing cancer cells, and got some “OK” results, he said.

The project lapsed until around 2004 when another scientist made a suggestion that unleashed the potential of the treatment. Jayant Kumar, director of UMass-Lowell’s Center for Advanced Materials, suggested adding ethanol, an alcohol, to make the compound more effective. They came up with a 10 percent solution, similar to the alcoholic content of wine.

“Being Italian and a lover of wine, I said, ’Sure, no problem,’” Bruno said. “I did and it worked.”

The ethanol solution, along with a plant-derived enzyme, was the “critical Lego, if you will,” because ethanol has low toxicity and allows the compound to keep its shape intact in the bloodstream, Braunhut said.

Researchers have been intensively studying the potential treatment for a year, and have found it to be effective in “incredibly low doses,” she said. Braunhut said researchers want to begin animal studies in September, and continue those tests for a year or more.

The scientists have filed an application for a patent, and are being funded by the Department of Defense and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Researchers are not yet sure if the drug is capable of killing cancer cells with 100 percent efficiency. But the potential to treat cancer without producing hazardous waste has Braunhut excited.

“What makes this work so exciting is this drug appears to be able to kill a very wide variety of cancer cells,” she said. “I think it has some very important contributions. It will shift the paradigm of drug production by using green chemistry approaches.”