New compounds can prevent tumors from "breathing"

Medical Network August 27th The latest collaborative research between researchers in the United States and South Korea found that a new compound consisting of two existing drugs can prevent tumors from "breathing" and is expected to be used to treat various cancers in the future.

Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin and Korea's Korea University published a paper in a new issue of the journal Chemistry, which said that the main ingredients of this new compound are the old chemotherapy drugs doxorubicin and dichloroacetate, feeding patients Two months after the cancer mice, the tumor volume in the body was greatly reduced.

The researchers divided the cancer-bearing mice into three groups, one group fed a new compound for two months, one group fed doxorubicin for two months, and one group received no treatment. Previously, these cancer-bearing mice have developed some resistance to doxorubicin. The results showed that the tumors of mice taking the novel compounds were 50% smaller than those of the mice with doxorubicin alone, and 75% smaller than the tumors of the mice without drugs.

The researchers explained that the tumor used anaerobic metabolism in the early stage, when the chemotherapy drug works better. However, when the tumor matures, it will turn into aerobic metabolism, just as the running from the beginning of the "breathing difficulties" into the state, resulting in drug resistance. The addition of dichloroacetate in the new compound allows cancer cells to use anaerobic metabolism again and cannot “breath”, thus helping to improve chemotherapy.

The author of the paper, Jonathan Zessler, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, said that the key to the new study is to combine the two active components into one molecule, ensuring that they simultaneously reach the tumor cells.