Copper complexes of the traditional Chinese remedy plumbagin show enhanced anticancer activity, say Chinese scientists. 

Traditional Chinese medicines (TCM's) such as Plumbagin (an extract from the plant Plumbago zeylanica) have been used to treat various chronic conditions including rheumatoid arthritis, dysmenorrhoea and even cancer, explains Zhen-Feng Chen at Guangxi Normal University, Guilin, China. Now, Chen and colleagues have shown that copper-plumbagin complexes have higher anticancer properties and are less toxic to healthy cells than commonly used platinum-based drugs, such as cisplatin. 

Chen tested the copper complex on seven typical human tumour cell lines in vitro, finding that the cytotoxicity was higher than cisplatin, plumbagin alone and other copper-based drugs. Copper complexes are known to have antitumor properties and Chen says that coordinating plumbagin with copper creates a synergistic effect improving the anticancer properties. 

'In recent years, a global surge in the popularity of traditional medicine has lead to an enormous interest in developing new pharmaceutical products from TCM's' explains Chen. 'The compounds [in this study] exhibit multi-targets and multi-mechanisms, which may lead to new types of potential antitumour agents,' he adds. 

Roy Planalp, an expert in metal coordination complexes for the treatment of diseases at the University of New Hampshire, Durham, US, says '[the work] is very exciting with regards to the enhanced antitumour properties of a natural substance by complexation with a common biometal.' 

Chen's group are now studying other cancer TCM-metal agents and aiming to produce TCM anticancer compounds that have specific targets.

Carl Saxton

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