I remember a local news piece from Houston back late 90-early 00s where a apparently prominent cancer doctor or researcher(not hard to believe with the medical center nearby) claimed he found some kind of exotic tree that contained something he believed would be a magic bullet etc? Obviously it didn’t pan out as miraculously as he had hoped, he showed the reporter he had plated several of them in his yard.
Anyone know who this was? Did his reputation suffer for this media stunt?
Is this the guy?
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1990’s, Texas, sounds like your guy.
Gotta be him. Thanks!
The natural product from that tree, camptothecin, is well known for it’s anti-cancer properties - has been since the 60s. There are drugs on the market today which are small modifications of camptothecin; it’s probably one of the most studied of all molecules in cancer medicinal chemistry. So it’s not like the guy is talking bollox.
I’m not sure what he is talking about, mind. Perhaps this particular tree produces a variety of camptothecin analogs that have slight structural modifications (not uncommon in natural products chemistry), and he’s studying their anti-cancer activity?
Some use has been found for derivatives isolated from camptothecin, but nothing I’ve seen suggests that the tree and its compounds represent a “magic bullet” against cancer.*
One such use is in colon cancer, and the description here makes the drug sound like a fairly traditional chemotherapy agent.
For the more technically inclined, here’s a description of a camptotheca derivative’s anti-cancer action, although it should be noted that this particular study apparently involved tumors grafted onto “nude” mice.
*the very idea that a single approach offers a “magic bullet” against all or most cancers deserves to be eyed with skepticism.