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Light turns on anticancer agents
Source: (cancerfacts.com)
Sunday, August 29, 2004
BLACKSBURG, VA.– Aug. 29, 2004 – Researchers developing light-activated cancer therapies have developed a drug that does not require oxygen to kill cancer cells.
The goal of such drugs is to be able to aggressively treat tumors while not harming nearby healthy tissue. One approach scientists have been pursuing are drugs that they can activate with light only at the site of a tumor. A pair of studies reported last week show the approach may be gaining research momentum.
A team of scientists including Dr. Harry Morrison, professor of chemistry and former dean of Purdue University's School of Science has developed a group of rhodium-based compounds that, when exposed to light, can kill tumor cells and deactivate a virus closely related to the West Nile and yellow fever viruses.
Unlike chemotherapy agents, these chemicals are not harmful to healthy tissue. They only become lethal to DNA when activated by light of a specific frequency. While therapies based on the discovery are likely many years away, the compounds could have potential as anticancer agents and for blood sterilization.
"We have proven in principle that light and chemistry together can destroy tumor cells and the Sindbis virus, a member of a group of viruses that cause encephalitis, fever and arthritis," Morrison said in a Purdue press release. "This research offers hope that someday we may be able to replace standard chemotherapy drugs with others that are far less generally harmful to a patient's body and guarantee safe, sterile blood for transfusions."
A group of researchers in Morrison's department led by Dr. Elton Menon, published results of their study in the current Aug. 23 issue of Inorganic Chemistry.
"Anticancer therapies could, in theory, be developed using such photo-activated rhodium complexes," Morrison said. "The interior of the body is dark, but it might be possible to thread a fiberoptic cable through the arteries and flood a tumor with light. Some lasers are also capable of shining through tissue without damaging it, and they might also be candidates for light delivery."
Another obstacle that needs to be overcome for this approach to succeed is the need of these agents for oxygen to become activated by light, however, most tumors are made of oxygen-depleted tissue.
In an important advance in photodynamic therapy research, a team led by Dr. Karen Brewer from Virginia Tech reported they have developed light-activated therapy agents that are oxygen independent. Brewer's chemistry-biology team is working with cell cultures to compare the effectiveness of the agents in the dark and in visible light. They presented their findings at the 228th American Chemical Society National Meeting in Philadelphia last week.
"Another improvement for our systems is that the agents are activated by visible light, as opposed to UV (ultraviolet) light," said Brewer, associate professor of chemistry. "Using only visible light is a safeguard against inadvertent damage of tissue."
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