Scientists hope the venom of an Australian octopus could slow cancer growth and help drug-resistant patients fight one of the most serious forms of melanoma.
An international study has found early evidence a compound in the venom of an Australian southern sand octopus could potentially be a platform for highly-targeted, less toxic treatment against BRAF-mutated melanoma.
About half of all melanomas have mutations in the BRAF gene.
The pre-clinical study, published in the British Journal of Pharmacology, was led by Maria Ikonomopoulou, who began researching the venom compound at QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute in Brisbane.
Researchers investigated how well a range of synthetic venom compounds that had been previously identified by University of Queensland research could fight tumours.
Dr Ikonomopoulou, who is a senior scientist at the Madrid Institute for Advanced Studies in Food, said researchers had screened various samples of venom from several marine species.
She said a peptide developed from the octopus seemed to be more effective towards the melanoma cells of the BRAF mutation.
"What was very surprising and pleasantly interesting was that when we tested it in the healthy cells, it seemed to have no effect, and even if we used really high concentrations, it was really safe in the healthy cells," she said.
Addressing toxicity
The study was completed at the Madrid Institute for Advanced Studies in Food in Spain.
It also involved collaborators from The University of Queensland, the University of Santiago de Compostela, James Cook University and the University of Sydney.
Dr Ikonomopoulou said researchers hoped the findings could help address the adverse effects from the toxicity of melanoma treatments and that some patients did not respond to some treatments.
"Its lack of toxicity gives us hope that the compound may one day be used in combination with immunotherapy and other treatments to attack the cancer in a different way," she said.
"This could help tackle drug-resistance and give any treatment greater effect."
However, Dr Ikonomopoulou said further research was needed to understand the potential treatment, and that human trials were still years away.
The researchers also want to investigate whether the compound could be used against other BRAF-mutated cancers such as those in the prostate, colon, and non-small cell lung.
Dr Ikonomopoulou has previously led research with Dr Manuel A Fernadez-Rojo which found a compound in the venom of the Australian funnel-web spider was effective at killing melanoma cells and cells in facial tumours on Tasmanian devils.
