Acid-seeking 'warheads' promise safer, more effective cancer weapons

For years, scientists tried to develop anti-cancer drugs based on enediynes, a powerful class of natural, tumor-fighting agents derived from soil bacteria. However, as these substances kill both cancerous and healthy cells, their effectiveness as anti-cancer drugs is limited.

In the new study, Elfi Kraka and colleagues describe making unusual substances that become highly active only in the presence of low pH levels, or acidic environments. Since cancer cells have highly acidic environments in comparison to normal cells, compounds containing these substances — called dynemicin-amidines (DADs) — target and destroy tumor cells without affecting healthy cells, the researchers say. The substances represent “the design of the first nontoxic enediyne antitumor drugs based on the DAD principle,” the report states.

Source: American Chemical Society