Medical Discovery News
Science permeates everyday life. Yet the understanding of advances in biomedical science is limited at best. Few people make the connection that biomedical science is medicine and that biomedical scientists are working today for the medicine of tomorrow. Our weekly five-hundred-word newspaper column (http://www.illuminascicom.com/) and two-minute radio show provide insights into a broad range of biomedical science topics. Medical Discovery News is dedicated to explaining discoveries in biomedical research and their promise for the future of medicine. Each release is designed to stimulate listeners to think, question and appreciate how science affects their health as well as that of the rest of the world. We also delve into significant biomedical discoveries and portray how science (or the lack of it) has impacted health throughout history.
Medical Discovery News
Molecular Jackhammers the Coolest New Cancer Killers
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931 Molecular Jackhammers, the Coolest New Cancer Killers
Welcome to Medical Discovery News. I’m Dr. David Niesel.
And I’m Dr. Norbert Herzog
Scientists may have come up with a new cancer-fighting tool and well, it functions sort of like a jackhammer that can break open and kill cancer cells. In the lab, it’s ninety nine percent effective.
It involves two components. One is a molecule called aminocyanines already used in cancer treatment. It’s a molecular dye that marks cancer cells when it binds to them.
Here’s where the jackhammer comes in. Researchers discovered that when aminocyanines were exposed to near infrared light, the molecules vibrated at forty trillion oscillations per second. That generates massive mechanical forces that break open cancer cells killing them.
The tumor cells die within minutes, and while cancer cells can develop resistance to certain chemical therapies, they’re not likely to against molecular jackhammers. In studies on mice with melanomas, their tumors shrank and about half were cured.
Some aminocyanines bind only to tumor cells and the amount needed to kill the cancer cells is very low and non-toxic. They’re also small enough to escape detection by the immune system.
And because infrared light can penetrate about four inches into the body, the treatment can be used on tumors deep inside the body such as the pancreas.
So far scientists have developed seventy-five different molecular jackhammers and are working to optimize them. If all goes well, these molecular jackhammers could begin clinical trials within seven years.
We are Drs. David Niesel and Norbert Herzog, at UTMB and Quinnipiac University, where biomedical discoveries shape the future of medicine. For much more and our disclaimer go to medicaldiscoverynews.com or subscribe to our podcast. Sign up for expanded print episodes at www.illuminascicom.com
