Synthetic Molecules Carrying Salt Kill Cancer Cells

the Cancer Therapy Advisor take:

New findings published in the journal Nature Chemistry suggest the possibility of the creation of new anticancer drugs using synthetic ion transporters. Researchers from around the world created molecule-carrying sodium and chloride ions that can cause cancer cell death.

According to Philip Gale, MA, DPhil, of the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom, the chloride transporters and sodium channels work simultaneously to cause an influx of sodium and chloride into a cancer cell, resulting in apoptosis.

Human cells maintain a stable concentration of mostly sodium and chloride ions in the extracellular fluid and potassium, magnesium, and phosphate ions in the intracellular fluid. By altering the carefully controlled ion balance of normal cells, one can trigger a cell to self-destruct.

This method, however, does not hold up for cancer cells, which change the way they transport ions across the cell membrane, thereby blocking apoptosis. Jonathan Sessler, PhD, of the Colleges of Natural Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin in Austin, Texas, designed synthetic ion transporters that bind to chloride ions and allow the chloride transporters to pass through the cell membrane via the sodium channels and, as a result, cause an influx of sodium. The altered ion concentrations of the cancer cells then triggered apoptosis.