New drugs inspired from the nature

Many years ago, we came across an interesting compound, iodinin, from marine benthic bacteria, which selectively induced apoptosis in leukaemia cells. In fact, the compound was first described more than 70 years ago, but has not been left much attention. We also almost put it aside, until our good collaborators Pål Rongved and Elvar Örn Viktorsson managed to develop a method to synthesise iodinin in the lab, and even better, produce variants which could be even better as drugs. We recently got our work accepted for publication in RCS medicinal chemistry. Here, Pål and Elvar has produced more than 60 analogues of iodinin, which we tested for ability to kill leukaemia cells. The results can tell us something about which parts of the molecules are crucial for the activity, and which part can be improved so we get even better activity, and milder side-effects.

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