Chemists from the MIT Research Institute have developed a new platinum compound that is similar in potency to the common anticancer drug cis-platinum and has a better ability to kill cancer cells
Chemists from the MIT Research Institute have developed a new platinum compound whose potency is similar to that of the common anticancer drug cis-platinum and which has a better ability to eliminate cancer cells.
The new compound, mitaplatin, combines cis-platinum with another compound, dichloroacetate (DCA), which is capable of selectively changing the properties of the mitochondria of cancer cells. Cancer cells change the properties of their mitochondria to change the way they utilize glucose compared to healthy cells, and DCA selectively targets this type of mitochondria, leaving healthy cells unharmed.
"This different effect allows meta-platinum to selectively eliminate cancer cells in co-culture with fibroblast cells (fibroblast, lipi germ, a cell that participates in the formation of connective tissue fibers), which are not affected by the doses we tested," says researcher Stephen Lippard, professor of chemistry at the institute.
The chemists designed meta-platinum in such a way that when it enters the cell it releases cis-platinum and two units of DCA by intracellular redox. As a result, the new material is able to attack DNA. nuclear with cis-platinum and mitochondrial with DCA. The compound DCA encourages the release of substances that promote cell death from the mitochondria, thus increasing the ability of cis-platinum to eliminate cancer cells.
In the next phase of the research, the scientists showed that in rodents, the new substance is capable of being administered in much higher doses than those of cis-platinum, and then moved on to testing the substance on mice that had been transplanted with human tissues. If the findings of these stages are promising, the scientists plan additional experiments to demonstrate the new compound's ability to cure cancer.
