Tapas Kumar Kundu’s lab overlooks a water body that attracts flocks of birds from all over Bangalore. The biochemist is inspired by nature. So it is but natural that he would turn to it for his research too. Kundu heads a highly motivated team of young researchers who are looking for ways to extract medication from natural products. And, promising leads from his lab in the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR) in the northern suburbs of Bangalore could one day lead to medicines that would help fight cancer.

Kundu and his team have been working on deriving molecules with promising pharmaceutical applications from natural substances. With the help of state-of-the-art scientific tools, they have been characterising these natural extracts in an attempt to pin down key substances that impart critical anti-cancer attributes. Unlike their peers, they aren’t satisfied by just pinning down substances with anti-cancer attributes. They then delve deep into exactly how these chemicals work in living cells so that the scientists can manipulate them to the fullest possible potential.

Research into new anti-cancer molecules has been a hot area for many reasons. New-generation drugs are prohibitively expensive and patients in developing countries often find it difficult to afford them. Secondly, most chemotherapy drugs used for cancer treatment have serious side effects.

Last month, Kundu and his team won an award instituted for the first time in India by pharmaceutical giant Merck Millipore Limited for isolating a promising anti-cancer molecule from the peel of the pomegranate. The skin of the fruit contains a compound called ellagic acid, which hampers the function of an enzyme that is implicated in cancer manifestation.

“It has been known for a while that an enzyme called CARM-1 is upregulated in some types of breast cancer and prostate cancer. We wanted to identify a compound that would target this specific function of the enzyme which helps in tumour growth,” says Kundu.

The Bangalore scientists looked at many natural products, but zeroed in on the pomegranate as it has been shown in the past that pills made of crude pomegranate extract slow down the growth of cancer cells. The fruits of the pomegranate plant, native to India, are known to have several medicinal properties and are used widely in traditional Indian medicine. Detailed studies at Kundu’s lab unravelled the exact processes through which the molecule acts on the CARM-1 enzyme.

The JNCASR scientists — who received a US patent last year for improving the activity of ellagic acid through chemical tweaking — are also exploring its effectiveness in mouth cancers (such as cancers of the tongue and cheek) caused by tobacco chewing.

Tapas Kumar Kundu

This is not the first time that Kundu and his team successfully identified an anti-cancer molecule in a natural product. Earlier, their painstaking research helped them to identify an anti-cancer molecule from the common spice turmeric. They found that this molecule, a water-soluble derivative of curcumin — the active ingredient of turmeric — interferes with cellular processes in an oral cancer tissue in such a way that the tissue undergoes a programmed death.

Explaining the latest work, Kundu says the enzyme CARM-1, among other things, plays an important role in stem cell differentiation. So they assumed that it may have a role in the differentiation of cancer stem cells — stem cells from which cancer cells originate — as well.

“What is important is that cancer stem cells do not respond to conventional chemotherapy drugs. When you give normal chemotherapeutic drugs, cancer stem cells do not die. What dies is the differentiated cancer cells,” observes Kundu.

So it is very important to target cancer stem cells, which do not obey normal rules and norms of cell division and cell differentiation, for keeping cancer in check, says Kundu.

The compound Kundu’s team has identified offers several advantages. First, it is very safe as it is derived from a fruit that we have been consuming for hundreds of years. Second, it can be conjugated with nanoparticles. This will help the molecule exploit emerging drug delivery technologies such as nanodelivery.

“Kundu is one of our leading researchers at the interface of pharmacology and molecular biology. He has been exploring many natural product-based possible leads and also new targets. He looks for leads from nature, which is smart way of looking for drugs,” says Goverdhan Mehta, Lilly-Jubilant Chair Professor at the school of chemistry at the University of Hyderabad.

“The science is good. But, how far it will translate into tangible products is difficult to say at this juncture. Introducing new drugs is a challenging and complex task,” says Mehta.

As we say, Mother Nature knows best.