Molecular Jackhammers the Coolest New Cancer Killers
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 99 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 40 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 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 75 different molecular jackhammers and are working to optimize them. If all goes well, these molecular jackhammers could begin clinical trials within seven years.
More Information
Molecular jackhammers eradicate cancer cells by vibronic-driven action
Through the actuation of vibronic modes in cell-membrane-associated aminocyanines, using near-infrared light, a distinct type of molecular mechanical action can be exploited to rapidly kill cells by necrosis. The molecules that destroy cell membranes through VDA have been termed molecular jackhammers because they undergo concerted whole-molecule vibrations. Given that a cell is unlikely to develop resistance to such molecular mechanical forces, molecular jackhammers present an alternative modality for inducing cancer cell death.
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