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CARIF & NGS Join Forces to Tap Into Malaysia’s Biodiversity reasure
Trove for Anti-Cancer Compounds Inking the agreement was Chairman of the CARIF Board of Trustees, YM Tunku Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Ahmad Yahaya, and NGS chairman Mr Satoshi Nimura, while YABhg Toh Puan Datuk Hajah Aishah Ong, member of the CARIF Board of Trustees and YBhg Dato’ Dr Hj Abdul Razak B. Md Ali, Director General of the Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM) witnessed the formalization of the partnership. As part of the collaboration, CARIF and NGS will be working together to analyse microbial extracts from soil bacteria of Malaysian forests for light-activated anti-cancer compounds. Explaining that Malaysia is one of the 17 mega-diversity centres that is home to 10 percent of living organisms in the world, with an estimated 15,500 species of higher plants, 300 species of mammals and 189 species of amphibians, Dr Teo Soo-Hwang, chief executive officer of CARIF said, “Our nation is very rich in biodiversity, and this drug development programme with NGS to explore microbial diversity is part of CARIF’s on-going effort to systematically screen extracts from various organisms including higher plants, marine algae, soil microbes and fungi for anti-cancer compounds.” Since its inception in 2000, CARIF has worked with a number of partners from both East and West Malaysia, and has screened over a thousand samples. A number of the samples screened have shown promising photo-activity and CARIF has isolated five active components or phosensitisers – one of them novel – from these extracts. “Light-activated anti-cancer compounds or photosensitisers are chemicals that can kill cancer cells when activated by light,” said Dr Teo. ”This therapy is photodynamic therapy (PDT). PDT is selective as only the tumour sites that are exposed to light will be susceptible to damage by the photosensitiser. Furthermore, tumours are less likely to become resistant to PDT, repeated treatment in recurrent cases is still an option.” PDT is a relatively new cancer treatment with the first clinical application approved for bladder cancer in 1993. Currently there are only four photosensitisers approved for clinical treatment of a number of cancers and there is a race to identify more selective and effective photosensitisers. Realising the potential of PDT, CARIF embarked on a screening program in 2004 to screen the Malaysian bio-diversity for new photosensitisers.  |
