Pharoah fungus & cancer…
This week, Professor Stebbing’s insights highlight early research showing that Aspergillus flavus, the fungus linked to Tutankhamun’s tomb, produces a new class of molecules with promising anti-leukaemia activity in the lab.
Ancient Tomb Fungus May Hold Key to Leukaemia Treatment
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have made a striking discovery: a fungus long associated with the opening of Tutankhamun's tomb has turned out to produce an entirely new class of molecules with potent anti-cancer properties. The fungus, Aspergillus flavus, is the same one that has been linked in popular legend to the so-called "pharaoh's curse" thought to have sickened some of the archaeologists who entered the sealed burial chamber in 1922. Examined now with modern molecular tools, it reveals something rather different: a potential medicine.
The team identified four previously unknown molecules, which they named "asperigimycins," produced by the fungus. Each has a complex, interlocking ring structure that had not been documented before in science. In laboratory tests, two of the four variants significantly slowed the growth of leukemia cells. A third became even more powerful when researchers attached a lipid (fat) molecule to it, at which point its ability to kill leukaemia cells matched that of cytarabine and daunorubicin, both long-established chemotherapy drugs used in acute leukaemia treatment. The molecules appear to work by disrupting the machinery that cancer cells use to divide, placing them in the same broad category as taxanes and vinca alkaloids, but with a distinct molecular structure.
Importantly, the asperigimycins showed little effect on breast, liver and lung cancer cell lines in these early tests, which hints at a degree of selectivity. That is encouraging, since more targeted treatments typically cause fewer unwanted side effects. The researchers have also identified similar gene clusters in other fungi, suggesting these molecules may be the first of a wider family waiting to be explored. The next steps are standard but essential: testing in animal models for safety and how the body processes the drug, refining the molecular structure to improve effectiveness, and, if results continue to be promising, moving toward early clinical trials in humans.
This research is at a very early stage and no treatment is available yet, but the discovery opens a genuinely new avenue in the search for anti-cancer medicines. As Professor Stebbing notes, fungal genomes contain substantial "chemical dark matter" that has barely been explored. The fact that this particular clue was hiding in a 3,000-year-old Egyptian tomb is a reminder that nature's medicine cabinet continues to surprise us.
Read more: https://www.engineering.upenn.edu/stories/penn-engineers-turn-toxic-fungus-into-anti-cancer-drug/
As always, if anything here feels relevant to your own situation, please speak with your clinical team.
With thanks to Professor Justin Stebbing for his insights and research.