Serotonin, a neurotransmitter that affects mood, appetite and libido, has been shown to kill one type of cancer cell, fueling hope for new drug therapies as well as concern that popular antidepressants interfere with serotonin's cancer-fighting properties.
In test-tube experiments, scientists studied the effect of serotonin on Burkitt's lymphoma, a cancer of the immune system. In high concentrations, serotonin, which is found in the brain, gut and blood platelets, entered cancer cells and caused them to self-destruct.
"If we can mimic serotonin's action, we might be able to halt Burkitt's lymphoma," says Randy Blakely, Ph.D., director of Vanderbilt University's Center for Molecular Neuroscience in Tennessee, and co-author of the study, which appeared in the medical journal Blood.
Scientists chose Burkitt's lymphoma because it has relatively few survival genes, making it easier to trick the cells into self-destructing, according to co-author John Gordon, Ph.D., a professor of cellular immunology at the University of Birmingham in England.
