Our next great cancer fighter—the sea cucumber

Sea cucumbers—a simple marine life form that cleans the ocean floor—has sugars that stop cancer spreading.

These sugars, known as fucosylated chondroitin sulfate, can block Sulf-2, an enzyme that cancer cells use in order to spread.

The sugar could become a safer alternative to current carbohydrate-based drugs that interfere with the body’s blood-clotting abilities and cause life-threatening bleeding, say researchers from the University of Mississippi.

Our cells are covered in tiny, hairlike structures called glycans that help with cell communication, immune responses and they recognise threats such as pathogens. Cancer cells use glycans in order to spread by altering the expression of enzymes such as Sulf-2 and changing the structure of glycans.

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