Nearly 30 years ago, researchers discovered two unusual molecules in rye pollen that appeared to slow tumor growth in animal studies. Despite the promising findings, the research reached a dead end because scientists could not determine the molecules' exact three dimensional structures.
Now, chemists at Northwestern University have solved that long standing mystery. By constructing the molecules from scratch in the laboratory, they confirmed the precise structures of secalosides A and B for the first time.
With an accurate molecular blueprint available, researchers can now investigate how these compounds from rye pollen, which comes from a cereal crop widely grown for its grain, interact with the immune system. That knowledge could eventually help guide the development of new approaches to cancer treatment.
The findings were published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
"In preliminary studies, other researchers found that rye pollen could help different animal models clear tumors through some unknown, non-toxic mechanism," said Northwestern's Karl A. Scheidt, who led the study. "Now that we confirmed the structure of these molecules, we can find the active ingredient -- or what part of the molecule is doing the work. This is an exciting starting point to make better versions of these molecules that could possibly inform approaches to cancer therapy."
