TREES ARE OUR FRIENDS

In the desert near Tucson, about 1985

We must cherish and protect our trees.  Why?  Well, beauty, shade and nurture for the soul are starters.  The fact that they absorb carbon dioxide and thus combat global warming is another.  And some trees give us cancer-fighting drugs.  End of argument.

You all probably know about Taxodium brevifolia, the Pacific yew, from which is derived Taxol, a common chemotherapy agent.  (Nowadays Taxol is manufactured otherwise somehow, leaving the noble yew to grow huge and combat global warming.)  Now, according to the following article

http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21657352-optical-switching-may-abolish-side-effects-cancer-drugs-colourful

science has discovered another oncologically useful tree (the South African bushwillow) that produces an organic chemical (called combretastatin A-4) which deals swift and certain death to cells that are trying to divide, as cancer cells do all too frequently.  This stuff has been known for some time but, because it deals death to any cell it encounters, not just cancer cells, it is little used (or used in weak dosages) because of its powerful side effects.  Now, two very clever people in Munich have figured out a way to turn combretastatin on or off – that is, from a harmless to a potent structure - using a simple and non-destructive beam of light.  The trick then will be to give the harmless stuff to the patient, then turn on the potent form in the cancer, but nowhere else. 

You should read this little essay; no advanced biology required.  The article ends with the warning that few clever ideas that originate in the lab ever emerge in the clinic, and that is true.  Maybe this one will fall by the wayside too.  However, it warms my innards to be so often reminded that there are so many extremely able people working on the cancer problem.