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J. M. L.
Toledo
Wednesday, 24 July 2024, 18:37
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Researchers from several Spanish universities have combined forces and succeeded in developing new compounds for more effective cancer treatment with photodynamic therapy (PDT). PDT is a relatively new approach to cancer treatment using a drug that is activated by exposure to a certain type of light to destroy cancer cells.
To give more detail, the researchers have devised new iridium-based photosensitisers with special organic molecules attached to them that "reduce the harmful effect on healthy cells and enhance the action on irradiated malignant cells, thus increasing the selectivity of the treatment and reducing side effects," explained Professor Blanca Rosa Manzano from the University of Castilla-La Mancha, who has led this research work. The team's findings have been published in the peer-reviewed, scientific publication Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. Fellow researchers from the University of Burgos, the University of Girona, the University of Zaragoza and the NOVA University of Lisbon (Portugal) also collaborated in this discovery.
Photodynamic therapy is a treatment that uses special drugs, sometimes called photosensitising agents that, along with the use of light to activate the drugs taken, can kill certain cancer cells. "We have succeeded in creating active compounds in photodynamic therapy that are made up of the main metal (iridium) and special organic molecules attached to it, which are largely responsible for capturing the light and activating the drug," said the professor.
Two thousand times more powerful
These compounds, or agents, have little toxicity in the dark but, when exposed to the right light, they are activated and become lethal to cancerous cells. "Some of these compounds have shown themselves to be 2,000 times more active when triggered by light, which would allow such low doses of drug to be administered that the cells would not be damaged until a light of sufficient intensity is applied. This reduces the harmful effect on healthy cells and enhances the action on the irradiated malignant cells."
In their investigations the researchers have also deciphered the mechanism that trips the reaction in the drugs and found that "one of the main targets for the therapy is the mitochondria (responsible for supplying most of the energy needed for cellular activity in the human body), causing depolarisation of its membrane, as well as damage to the cell's lysosomes."
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