Chinese scientists find cancer hope in old pest remedy
- Researchers make accidental discovery while testing drug resistance in insects
- Common parasite treatment paves way for cancer-busting drugs in tests
A type of pesticide used to treat lice and worms in humans could help treat cancer, according to a new study by Chinese scientists.
A research team at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Zoology in Beijing injected Ivermectin, a widely available insecticide, into the bodies of mice with solid tumours and leukaemia. The cancer cells, which previously had been highly drug-resistant, immediately succumbed to chemotherapeutic drugs.
Professor Wu Yijun and his colleagues next tried Ivermectin on human cells in which colorectal and breast cancers had been cultured in a dish, with the same results.
“It was an unexpected discovery,” Wu said. “The original purpose of our research was not about cancer, but to study the drug resistance of insects.
“We have no idea how many cancers could be treated by this method, but we have tested it on two major cancer types, solid tumour and blood cancer, and it works very well in both cases,” he said.
