Professor Makes Small Steps Forward Towards Cancer Research

(Statesboro, GA) A screenshot of an illustration by Tolentino over a zoom call to show the process of growing the cancer cell to be tested, a diagram to show what it is tested in, and a graph to show how the results are analyzed based on concentration of the compound, and the amount of time. Image does not include Tolentino's other parts of the image.

By John Roberts 

    A professor at Georgia Southern University is conducting research this semester to confirm the creation of a compound that shows activity against some cancer cells.

    Christine Whitlock, a professor and synthetic organic chemist, has been working with an iron compound called tris-indole amines for almost 20 years.

    The National Cancer Institute has a program called the NCI-60 Human Tumors Cell Lines Screen that allows scientists and researchers to send in compounds for free, and test their activity in 60 human cancer cells. 

    Whitlock sent in multiple compounds, but only received interest about the iron compound that showed some activity with cancer cells. 

    These surprising results for Whitlock from this compound led to the creation of a few derivatives, which are compounds arising from another compound already made. 

    Whitlock partnered with a colleague and cell biologist, Timothy Tolentino to test some of these derivatives in some cancer cells. 

    Tolentino tested them in prostate cancer cells and leukemia cells, and Whitlock said that the results in cell culture are just as active as some drugs that are on the market.

    Tolentino has a plethora of samples of cancer that he obtains, grows, and stores for tests for professors like Whitlock.

    The process to test the iron compound involved taking the sample of the cancers out of their freezer, providing nutrients and circumstances that would grow the amount of these cells to a strong place.

    Once this cancer cells grew up this point, Tolentino placed it in a certain contained environment, and places different concentrations of the the compound over different periods of time. 

    These results showed Whitlock and Tolentino the anti-cancer properties that the NCI program identified as well.

    Whitlock's research on iron compounds were not originally intended to treat cancer, but rather for chelating iron for people that have too much iron in their blood, also known as hemochromatosis. 

    This iron chelating process is designed to where a compound can grab or bond to iron in the bloodstream, and filter it out of the system.  

    The structure of the compound that Whitlock is working with is like claw of 3 molecules that grab onto iron, but differs from the original by using molecules Whitlock has chosen that are able to dissolve the iron more.

    "I think it has a lot of potential," Tolentino said.

    Both Whitlock and Tolentino observed that this iron compound is not toxic, shows anti-cancer properties, can treat for other medical issues and has the ability to act as a transporter based on its claw shape and iron chelating. 

    Tolentino said one of the biggest issues in cancer research is the fact that most treatments do not effectively target specific areas, and this compound possesses the ability to transport a drug to a certain location.

    Cancer treatment in most ways looks like a pouring food coloring in water to diffuse, rather than a precision missile to a specific area.

    The other issue has come that with more stronger doses of some cancer treatments has come to negatively affect other cells besides cancer cells. 

    Whitlock's research on this iron compound moves past these barriers.

    "It's not toxic, not radioactive, and kills cancer cells," Tolentino said, "Sounds good to me."

    Whitlock's research on the iron compound has a long distance to go before these observations get to a point where this could be a viable treatment.

    "You can spend years making a compound and then it doesn't work," Whitlock said.       

    

    Whitlock and her team have spent this semester making derivatives, and trying to confirm if she is the first person to make this compound, and to make it correctly.

    Once this point of the research is completed, it would move to tests on more cell culture, and then there would possibly be multiple years in between tests in cell culture, writing about it, peer reviewing it, and publishing it. 

    From there it would go to be tested on animals to be written about, peer reviewed, and published. It then would approach the possibility be used to be treated on a person. 

    Maegan Morrow, a senior undergraduate student in Whitlock's research, said that this research makes her very hopeful for future cancer research.

    "Even though we are far away from human trials, I believe this type of research and others could be a great alternative to current cancer treatments, and could possibly be able to cure it with future research and testing," Morrow said.