一種自菊科植物取得的複合物，為長期使用於緩和發燒症狀的常見藥用植物，不久將用於人體實驗，檢測其對於致命血癌(leukemia)，俗稱白血病的根治效果。乙酰甲胺磷(DMAPT)採自於類似雛菊的植物中，而研究正據此發展當中。
羅徹斯特大學研究者的這項新發現發表在本期的「Blood」期刊中，研究結果顯示，可溶於水的乙酰甲胺磷將目標鎖定在血癌的細胞核，也就是惡性腫瘤生成之處。制式的化療並無法深入到可殺死癌細胞的根部，造成癌細胞的復發。
《Blood》期刊主要作者喬登(Craig Jordan)博士表示，羅徹斯特大學研究團隊進行這項研究已有近5年的時間，並且把這項研究自實驗室發展到臨床研究，對於藥物發展的速度而言是極為快速的。
預計在2007年底於英格蘭開始進行藥物試驗，研究者要求約12位成年的自願者，經診斷患有急性骨髓性白血病、急性淋巴性白血病或是其他類型的血癌或淋巴癌患者，來進行這項藥物試驗。
A compound derived from feverfew, a common medicinal plant that has been used for centuries to reduce fever, will soon be tested on humans for its ability to attack the roots of the deadly blood cancer leukemia.
Under development is dimethylamino-parthenolide, DMAPT, which is derived from the daisy-like plant.
New research by University of Rochester investigators published in the current issue of the journal "Blood" shows that the water-soluble DMAPT selectively targets leukemia at the stem-cell level, where the malignancy is born. Standard chemotherapy does not strike deep enough to kill cancer at the roots, resulting in relapses.
The Rochester team has been leading the investigation of this promising therapy on the deadly blood cancer for nearly five years. And to bring it from a laboratory concept to patient studies in that time is very fast progress in the drug development world, said Craig Jordan, Ph.D., senior author of the "Blood" article.
Clinical trials are expected to begin in England by the end of 2007. Investigators expect to initially enroll about a dozen adult volunteers who have been diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, acute lymphoblastic leukemia, or other types of blood or lymph cancers, Jordan said.
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