Kill cancer seeds
New molecule defeats the last traces of cancer
Georgy Golovanov, Hi-tech+
Removal of a malignant tumor or radiotherapy does not always completely deal with cancer: the "seeds" of the disease remain in the body – cancer stem cells. The molecule discovered by American scientists is fighting with them – "starving", cutting off access to nutrients.
Cancer stem cells were discovered in the mid-90s by John Dick. He also found that they may be immune to existing treatments that target the destruction of rapidly growing cells. The discovery gave rise to a new branch of oncology, which is already showing promising results.
Scientists from The University of Toledo is comparing cancer stem cells to weeds sprouting on a well-manicured lawn. You can pull out the plant itself, but the seeds will remain.
Cancer can behave in a similar way, according to a press release of the Newly discovered molecules show promise targeting and killing cancer stem cells.
The article by Taylor et al. Small-Molecule Ferroptotic Agents with Potential to Selectively Target Cancer Stem Cells is published in the journal Scientific Reports – VM.
Exploring the possibilities of improving existing drugs for chemotherapy, biologists have stumbled upon something new. They synthesized a molecule that kills certain cancer cell lines in a different way than modern drugs epothilon and taxol do. Further simplification of its structure led them to the discovery.
Based on previous data, scientists already suspected that the discovered molecules could be a threat to cancer stem cells, so they conducted several experiments to prove it. They edited the cells to behave like aggressive breast cancer and stem cells, and put them up against new molecules to see what would happen. The molecules stuck to the cancer stem cells and prevented them from absorbing the amino acid cystine.
After that, the cells died – as scientists think, from a lack of glutathione, a molecule that supports cell protection, and an increase in the level of free radicals that damage the cell membrane.
Researchers believe that in the future, this molecule may complement existing chemotherapy drugs, as well as act as a separate drug to fight sarcoma and breast cancer.
Scientists from Colorado have found a way to starve cancer cells themselves. They blocked the ability of diseased cells to absorb amino acids. Since healthy cells did not depend on the metabolism of amino acids, treatment did not harm them.
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