IIT Roorkee researchers devise new cancer cure
NEW TECHNIQUE The new cure aims to provide controlled and targeted treatment to specific body organs while protecting the rest of the body from the harmful effects of currently existing radiationbased methods
NEWDELHI: A team of researchers at IIT Roorkee have developed a new technique for cancer cure. The team led by Dr. Kaushik Ghosh from the Department of Chemistry and Dr.Prabhat Mandal, Department of Biotechnology at IIT Roorkee who have created a NORM, nitric oxide releasing molecule.
Nitric oxide (NO) is a known toxic molecule produced in the human body through the nitric oxide synthase, a set of enzymes. “However, these are not very actively produced and NO is released only the body only when there is a need,” explains Ghosh. “While it has known applications in blood pressure regulation and the cardiovascular system, their role in cancer cure had not been explored so far.”
Ghosh explains that NO is a concentration-dependant phenomenon which means that its applications vary based on the quantity administered and thus a micro-molecular use of the compound will have a different impact than a milli-molecule use.
Given that this may not be a very actively produced component within the body, an external agent is required for the delivery of the NO compound to the body. The molecule which acts as the external agent is what the team has devised.
Since NO is an extremely reactive component, its usage and delivery needs to be monitored and controlled. “The NORM which holds the molecule will not liberate NO unless visible light is thrown on it,” he explains.
This is known as photo module therapy where light helps deliver molecules to the body and the drug will not activate till it receives light rays.
Further, controlling the intensity of light will also help control the amount of drug administered.
Currently anti-cancer drugs affect all parts of the body wherever there is cell proliferation and this is why chemotherapy leads to hair loss.
“Given that NO is diffusible through skin, the molecule can be applied on the skin through an ointment for instance and activated using visible light,” said Ghosh. “Thus, a targeted and controlled use of the drug can be undertaken while shielding other body parts from the toxic effects of the drug.” He adds that this can also be used along with microsurgery where there is a focus on reducing invasive procedures while targeting a location-specific treatment within the body.
The team took three kinds of cancer cells and tried to treat them in light as well as dark conditions. “While all cells were killed in light conditions, very few cells died in dark conditions,” says Ghosh. “While creating NO in the laboratory is easy using a simple reaction, the holding molecule used is a simple, cheap dye called azo.
So far NO’s usage in light involved ultraviolet rays which are extremely harmful for the human body and thus remained a major obstacle in its use for medical purposes. The researchers countered this by employing an organometallic ruthenium nitrosyl complex that produced positive result in visible lights very quickly.