China's new discovery of polysaccharide compounds or new direction of "anti-cancer"

Business News Agency September 3 has been looking for efficient, low-toxic anti-angiogenic inhibitors is one of the hot spots of cancer treatment. The reporter learned from the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, on the 2nd that a polysaccharide compound discovered by Ding Hao's research group can effectively inhibit the growth of tumor cells and lay a foundation for the study of cancer treatment new drugs.

According to reports, cancer has become a major health "killer" that endangers humans. Among them, the death rate of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) ranks second in China's malignancy. About 600,000 patients die from liver cancer each year, and the incidence rate is still rising. Inhibition of tumor growth by inhibiting tumor angiogenesis indirectly is a preferred method. However, due to the body's resistance to angiogenesis inhibitors, finding effective, low-toxic anti-angiogenic inhibitors has become one of the hot spots for cancer treatment.

The research on the anti-tumor mechanism of polysaccharides was carried out by Ding Hao Group of the Department of Glucose Biology and Sugar Chemistry at Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica. The polysaccharide compound WSS25 was extracted and purified from the gastrodia elata, and it was found that the polysaccharide compound can pass a certain mechanism of action. Against angiogenesis, it exerts an inhibitory effect on the growth of hepatocellular carcinoma cells in vivo.

Experts said that studies have shown that through quartz microbalance analysis, WSS25 strongly binds to receptors and effectively inhibits the growth of hepatoma cells in nude mice. Therefore, WSS25 is an angiogenesis inhibitor with good development prospects. The study of the mechanism has laid a foundation for the research of targeted polysaccharide cancer treatment.

At present, this research result has been published in the American Journal of Biological Chemistry.