In the News
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Journal of the American Chemical Society Thursday, Aug. 16, 2018
Track, Target, Trigger: Scientists Explore Controlled CO Release
About four years ago, Utah State University chemist Lisa Berreau posed a question to USU colleague and toxicologist Abby Benninghoff. "My students and I had developed a new flavonoid molecule that could release carbon monoxide," Berreau recalls. "And we were seeking an answer to the question, 'Could it kill cancer cells?'" ... the question raised more questions and initiated an interdisciplinary effort to explore the nuances of controlled carbon monoxide release in cells. Berreau and Benninghoff, along with their students Marina Popova, Tatiana Soboleva, Hector Esquer and Stacey Anderson, as well as colleague Suliman Ayad of Florida State University, are garnering international attention with their findings. The team recently published results of their studies in the American Chemical Society journal Chemical Biology and in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. The team's research is supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Utah Agricultural Experiment Station and the USU Office of Research and Graduate Studies. ... Like many substances, including the less-menacing examples of water and oxygen, too much carbon monoxide is a bad thing. But a little might be a lifesaver. ... The USU-developed molecule is derived from organic pigments called flavonoids, which occur naturally in such foods as berries and cacao. ... That's a "unique and exciting" part of USU's efforts, says Benninghoff, associate professor in USU's Department of Animal, Dairy and Veterinary Sciences and School of Veterinary Medicine. "Our flavonoid-based, organic photoCORMs are trackable, targetable and triggerable." ... "Our collaboration across disciplines has enabled us to achieve far more than we could have in our own lab," says Berreau, who holds the patent on the USU-developed photoCORM. "This is why collaboration matters. We are bringing complementary expertise toward developing CO-releasing molecules for potential therapeutic applications."