The development of medical treatments for cancer is a major area of research around the world, but the disease frequently manages to get around the solutions developed. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research (MPI-P), led by Tanja Weil and David Ng, have now examined the cancer’s defense mechanisms in greater detail and are working to thwart them. By messing with the parts of cells that are in charge of turning oxygen into chemical energy, they have been able to get rid of cancer cells that can’t be treated.
Cancer treatment is a lengthy process because surviving cancer cells frequently transform into aggressive forms that are no longer treatable. In order to prevent cancer relapse, treatment plans frequently include multiple drug combinations and/or radiation therapy. To fight the different types of cancer cells, modern medicines have been made to target the biochemical processes that are unique to each type of cancer cell.
Cancer cells can, however, adapt quickly and create defenses to the treatment’s side effects. According to David Ng, group leader at the MPI-P, “We want to prevent such adaptation by invading the main pillar of cellular life—how cells breathe, or take up oxygen, and subsequently produce chemical energy for growth.”
The research team created a synthetic drug that enters cells, reacts to the conditions there, and starts a chemical reaction. Due to this, molecules in the drug can unite to form teeny, 1,000 times thinner than human hair strands. Zhou, an Alexander-von-Humboldt fellow and the paper’s first author, explains that because these strands are fluorescent, you can observe them directly under a microscope as they develop.
The scientists observed how much oxygen various cancer cell types consumed and discovered that the hairs prevent all of them from converting oxygen into ATP, a molecule that is in charge of supplying energy to cells. Even cells derived from metastatic cancer that was incurable but not curable were successfully treated. The result is that the cells quickly perish within four hours. The researchers are hopeful that after a few more years of study, they will be able to create a brand-new treatment for cancer that is currently incurable.
On the basis of how these tiny hairs prevent the conversion of oxygen into chemical energy, Weil, Ng, and colleagues have demonstrated an exciting outcome under controlled laboratory culture. They plan to continue to uncover deeper insights on this topic. These objects may eventually be manipulated to regulate additional cellular functions in order to treat other serious diseases with further development.
Their findings have been published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
