Bacteria from Bay of Fundy shows potential fighting cancer

FREDERICTON ? Researchers looking for ways to help protect farmed fish from infection are now optimistically eyeing strains of bacteria from the Bay of Fundy as potential cancer-fighters in humans.

"We've isolated some compounds and they show anti-cancer activity and show some anti-bacterial activity as well," said Ben Forward, who leads the fish health research group at the Research and Productivity Council in Fredericton.

The work is in its early stages. The researchers are now growing more of the bacteria so that additional work can be done to verify the structure of the compound and see what impact it may have on different types of cancers.

"We're in the discovery and proof-of-concept stage. We've found this bacteria and they look like they have some interesting properties. We've isolated some compounds and they show anti-cancer activity and show some anti-bacterial activity as well," said Forward.

He said it could be years before the research spawns any development.

The potential benefit for humans wasn't what researchers originally set out to find.

The work began a number of years ago as the aquaculture industry looked at diversifying beyond farmed salmon. Researchers were investigating ways to develop probiotic bacteria that could improve the survival of larval finfish such as cod and haddock in the hatchery stage.

Farmed salmon are first raised in fish hatcheries. But bacterial infections can be a scourge in those tanks and fish can't be vaccinated since they don't have immune systems.

"So we developed probiotic bacteria, to help protect them against disease outcrops and to improve their survival," Forward said.

Forward said a conversation with a North Carolina-based marine natural products chemist led to questions about the health benefits for humans.

They had Dr. Jeffrey Wright took a look at some of the most interesting strains.

"Some of them came back as pretty interesting positives," Forward said.

"Now we're taking the most interesting ones, and growing them up into a larger amount so we can produce more of the compound to do more of the testing . . . and carry the work further."

Christine Williams, vice-president of research at the Canadian Cancer Society, welcomed the research and said cross-disciplinary approaches are important to science.

"Personally, I am grateful to them. It shows a level of creativity and commitment to discovery that they are following an observation and really trying to understand what's behind it that not everybody does," Williams said.

While she couldn't comment on the research itself, she said the history of science and particularly cancer science is full of examples of cross-disciplinary findings.

Williams keeps a quote from the writer Isaac Asimov on the wall in her office to remind her that sometimes the most important discoveries are the serendipitous ones. "It says: The most exciting phrase to hear in science is not 'Eureka!' but 'That's funny.' "

? Copyright (c) New Brunswick Telegraph Journal

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