{"id":1152,"date":"2025-06-25T13:31:45","date_gmt":"2025-06-25T13:31:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/?p=1152"},"modified":"2025-06-25T13:31:56","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T13:31:56","slug":"researchers-turn-a-toxic-fungus-into-cancer-fighting-drug","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/25\/researchers-turn-a-toxic-fungus-into-cancer-fighting-drug\/","title":{"rendered":"Researchers turn a toxic fungus into cancer-fighting drug"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Researchers at the <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/changing-america\/well-being\/prevention-cures\/4692759-mrna-vaccine-by-upenn-scientists-could-manage-bird-flu-outbreak\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/changing-america\/well-being\/prevention-cures\/4692759-mrna-vaccine-by-upenn-scientists-could-manage-bird-flu-outbreak\/\">University of Pennsylvania<\/a> have turned a deadly fungus into a potent cancer-fighting compound after isolating a new class of molecules from it.<\/p>\n<p>Aspergillus flavus is a toxic crop fungus that has been linked to deaths in the excavation of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsnationnow.com\/world\/international-headlines\/ap-egyptian-archaeologists-discover-three-tombs-in-luxor\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.newsnationnow.com\/world\/international-headlines\/ap-egyptian-archaeologists-discover-three-tombs-in-luxor\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">ancient tombs<\/a>. It was recently used in a test against leukemia cells and resulted in those cells being killed.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Fungi gave us penicillin,&#8221; said Dr. Sherry Gao, senior author of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41589-025-01946-9\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41589-025-01946-9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">study<\/a>. &#8220;These results show that many more medicines derived from natural products remain to be found.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The aspergillus flavus, named for its yellow spores, has been known as a microbial villain for years. <\/p>\n<p>A series of deaths following the excavation of <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/ap\/ap-international\/ap-a-grand-museum-displaying-egypts-ancient-treasures-is-opening-for-a-trial-run\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/ap\/ap-international\/ap-a-grand-museum-displaying-egypts-ancient-treasures-is-opening-for-a-trial-run\/\">King Tutankhamun<\/a>&#8216;s tomb in 1922 started fueling rumors of a &#8220;pharaoh&#8217;s curse.&#8221; The discovery of King Casimir IV&#8217;s tomb in Poland in 1973 led to the deaths of 10 scientists who entered it. <\/p>\n<p>The investigations of both tombs revealed they contained the deadly fungus.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers say the next step is to test those compounds in animals with the hope of one day moving to human clinical trials.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have turned a deadly fungus into a potent cancer-fighting compound after isolating a new class of molecules from it. Aspergillus flavus is a toxic crop fungus that has been linked to deaths in the excavation of ancient tombs. It was recently used in a test against leukemia cells and resulted in those cells being killed. &#8220;Fungi gave us penicillin,&#8221; said Dr. Sherry Gao, senior&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1154,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1152"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1152"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1153,"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1152\/revisions\/1153"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gogetterlifestylebrand.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}