Modified MDMA attacks cancerous blood cells in test tubes

[Harry J Asslinger]

From: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-14572284

Modified ecstasy could one day have a role to play in fighting some blood cancers, according to scientists.

Ecstasy is known to kill some cancer cells, but scientists have increased its effectiveness 100-fold, they said in Investigational New Drugs journal.

Their early study showed all leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma cells could be killed in a test tube, but any treatment would be a decade away.

A charity said the findings were a "significant step forward".

In 2006, a research team at the University of Birmingham showed that ecstasy and anti-depressants such as Prozac had the potential to stop cancers growing.

The problem was that it needed doses so high they would have been fatal if given to people.

The researchers, in collaboration with the University of Western Australia, have chemically re-engineered ecstasy by taking some atoms away and putting new ones in their place.

One variant increased cancer-fighting effectiveness 100-fold. It means that if 100g of un-modified ecstasy was needed to get the desired effect, only 1g of the modified ecstasy would be needed to have the same effect.

Scientists say this also reduced the toxic effect on the brain.

Lead researcher Professor John Gordon, from the University of Birmingham, told the BBC: "Against the cancers, particularly the leukaemia, the lymphoma and the myeloma, where we've tested these new compounds we can wipe out 100% of the cancer cells in some cases.

Makes one wonder what unexplored medicines might lie in our prohibited substances, both inherently and derived.

[LLStarks]

1. This sounds like a terrible idea since using ecstasy more than once a month is brain damaging. nt

[banned from Kos]

3. no one has ever proven that - the MRI's that purported to show

holes in the brain of MDMA users turned out to be a hoax.

[jsamuel]

5. heh, what do you think the drugs current cancer patients take do?

[truedelphi]

7. But that is as MDMA is now.

Surely with the technologies at hand, the MDMA molecules could be re-arranged so that the brain damage doesn't occur.

Or else perhaps some nutritional substance added to a pill would hamper the MDMA's components from doing the brain damage.

[banned from Kos]

9. the "brain damage" is a bunch of Bullshit - don't believe 2% of this crap

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/20/ecstacy-doesnt-damage-the_n_825704.html

Huffpo? - I know. But the links in Huffpo are to reputable sources.

[targetpractice]

2. Modified to make it patentable, no doubt.

Merck patented MDMA (methylenedioxymethamphetamine) in 1917, and the patent rights have expired... There is not a lot of profit motivation for drug companies to investigate MDMA benefits today, because MDMA is not patentable today and currently illegal.

Modify it just enough to retain any therapeutic effects, patent it, and then get it declared a Schedule II drug by the FDA = PROFITS!!

[TheWraith]

6. Modified to make it MORE EFFECTIVE.

Please read the article before you start spinning conspiracy theories. The article explains that the unmodified drug has some limited anti-cancer properties, and they modified it to increase those by 100 fold.

[targetpractice]

8. Thanks... I did...

I thought the "MORE EFFECTIVE" therapeutic benefits were the obvious goal from the original post and article. It doesn't make sense to modify MDMA otherwise.

I didn't intend to seem conspiratorial.

[AndyTiedye]

4. k/r