Page 40 - AWSAR 2.0

16 || AWSAR Awarded Popular Science Stories - 2019
They used techniques such as confocal microscopy and flow cytometry to know the mechanisms and used colours (differential stains) to differentiate the changes in skin cancer cells treated with UA in comparison to the untreated cancer cells. They knew that UA was able to cause cancer cell death in a controlled manner known as apoptosis, followed by a series of actions. The UA changed the composition and permeability of mitochondria and plasma membrane. It halted the cell cycle progression, thus inhibiting the cancer cells from growing further. The one interesting thing they observed after the UA treatment was that cancerous cells started eating themselves, a phenomenon known as autophagy. For this study, they stained the cells with monodansylcadaverine dye and observed increased blue fluorescence by confocal microscopy, suggesting an increased number of self-eating (autophagic) vacuoles. They also observed changes in the mechanical and biophysical properties of cancer cells and a change in their stress versus strain ratio after
the UA treatment with the help of a technique known as atomic force measurement. They also used some more biophysical techniques to demonstrate that the functional groups such as carboxylic group, amine group, and hydroxyl groups were altered after the UA treatment in comparison to non-treated healthy skin cancer cells. Well! The compound produced by me was quite capable of killing cancer cells.
This was not the end of the story. Although the compound produced by me did kill cancer cells, there was some solubility issue associated with it. The laboratory still has to Fig. out the solutions for better solubility of the compound in water to enhance its efficiency. More work on molecular aspects and animal studies are yet to be done to develop a more economical anti-cancer drug from a new source. I am awaiting my transition from my host to the welfare of human health.
The work was carried out by me, Siya Kamat and Prof. C. Jayabaskaran in the Department of Biochemistry, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru.