Researchers in Vladivostok, in the Far Eastern region of Primorsky, earlier this year isolated four new biologically active steroid conjugates from the deep-water Pacific starfish Ceramaster patagonicus.

That starfish-originating steroids could potentially be used as efficient blockers of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s has been long known; the steroids are said to help nervous cells survive through stressful situations like low levels of oxygen and glucose. In their recent research, however, the scientists found that the unusual steroid molecules they had isolated demonstrated manifest anti-tumor effect against cancerous cells in the breast and the colon.

Timofey Malyarenko, PhD, associate professor at the Department of Bioorganic Chemistry and Biotechnology, FEFU’s School of Natural Sciences, and senior research fellow at PIBOC’s Laboratory of Marine Natural Compounds Chemistry was quoted as saying that, “the steroid conjugates taken from the starfish prevent cancerous cells in nontoxic concentrations from dividing and multiplying... giving us hope that the new substances won’t kill healthy cells in the human body.”