{"id":224637,"date":"2025-11-06T05:05:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T11:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/11\/scientists-crack-the-code-behind-a-rare-cancer-fighting-compound"},"modified":"2025-11-06T05:05:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T11:05:08","slug":"scientists-crack-the-code-behind-a-rare-cancer-fighting-compound","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/11\/scientists-crack-the-code-behind-a-rare-cancer-fighting-compound","title":{"rendered":"Scientists Crack the Code Behind a Rare Cancer-Fighting Compound"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/scientists-crack-the-code-behind-a-rare-cancer-fighting-compound.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Scientists at UBC Okanagan have revealed how plants create mitraphylline, a rare natural substance that shows potential for fighting cancer.<\/p>\n<p>Mitraphylline is part of a small family of plant molecules known as spirooxindole alkaloids. These compounds are distinguished by their complex \u201ctwisted\u201d ring structures and are recognized for powerful biological effects, including anti-tumor and anti-inflammatory activity.<\/p>\n<p>Until recently, researchers did not know the precise molecular process plants use to form spirooxindoles. That mystery began to unravel in 2023 when Dr. Thu-Thuy Dang\u2019s team in the Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science identified the first plant enzyme capable of twisting a molecule into the distinctive spiro shape.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scientists at UBC Okanagan have revealed how plants create mitraphylline, a rare natural substance that shows potential for fighting cancer. Mitraphylline is part of a small family of plant molecules known as spirooxindole alkaloids. These compounds are distinguished by their complex \u201ctwisted\u201d ring structures and are recognized for powerful biological effects, including anti-tumor and anti-inflammatory [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":396,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-224637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/396"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224637\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}