After 50 Years, MIT Chemists Finally Synthesize Elusive Anti-Cancer Compound
Preliminary studies indicate that derivatives of verticillin A can kill certain types of glioma cells.
MIT chemists have, for the first time, successfully created in the laboratory a fungal molecule called verticillin A. This compound was first discovered more than 50 years ago and has been recognized for its potential as an anticancer agent.
Although verticillin A differs from some related molecules by only a small number of atoms, its complex structure made it much more challenging to synthesize than those similar compounds.
“We have a much better appreciation for how those subtle structural changes can significantly increase the synthetic challenge,” says Mohammad Movassaghi, an MIT professor of chemistry. “Now we have the technology where we can not only access them for the first time, more than 50 years after they were isolated, but also we can make many designed variants, which can enable further detailed studies.”
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