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Radical Help in New Drug Therapies

Australian chemists are underpinning new advancements in drug therapies by synthesising naturally occurring compounds in the laboratory using free radicals.

At the ARC Centre of Excellence for Free Radical Chemistry and Biotechnology, chemists have successfully synthesised a number of natural compounds that form the newest attack in the fight against cancer and degenerative brain diseases.

"When people think of free radicals they usually associate them with detrimental effects on their health", says Associate Professor Mick Sherburn of the ANU and member of the Free Radical Centre, "yet the reactive nature of free radicals allows us to make compounds in fewer steps, more effectively with more variability than conventional methods. This results in lower costs as well as more environmentally friendly procedures through reducing waste."

Sherburn's group have successfully used free radical reactions to synthesise compounds with cancer-fighting properties such as podophyllotoxin, which is found in nature in plants such as the American mandrake. "By using these new techniques", says Dr Emma Pearson, a member of Sherburns group, "we are able to build up complex molecules found in nature from simple starting materials."

Dr Pearson's work has been focused on the compound viridin, which in nature is found in a soil fungus. Viridin is known to possess potent and highly selective antifungal activity and is also speculated to be a potential new anticancer agent. A successful synthesis of a naturally occurring compound, such as viridin, is a very important step in drug development.

Many natural products - podophyllotoxin included - are poisonous and are poor chemotherapeutic agents. Synthesis chemists develop new ways to create modified versions of natural products, which promotes the hunt for a medicinal agent with the most beneficial effect on humans and the fewest possible side effects.

"Australia has been at the forefront of free radical chemistry for the last thirty years. Our work on the synthesis of natural products using free radical chemistry underpins the development of new medicines", says Dr Pearson.