Cancer cells destroyed with metal from the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs
Cancer cells can be targeted and destroyed with the metal from the asteroid that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs, according to new research by an international collaboration between the University of Warwick and Sun Yat-sen University in China.
Researchers from the Professor Sadler and Professor O’connor groups in Warwick’s Department of Chemistry and Professor Hui Chao’s group at Sun Yat-sen have demonstrated that iridium — the world’s second densest metal — can be used to kill cancer cells by filling them with deadly version of oxygen, without harming healthy tissue, phys.org reported.
The researchers created a compound of iridium and organic material, which can be directly targeted towards cancerous cells, transferring energy to the cells to turn the oxygen (O2) inside them into singlet oxygen, which is poisonous and kills the cell — without harming any healthy tissue.
The process is triggered by shining visible laser light through the skin onto the cancerous area — this reaches the light-reactive coating of the compound, and activates the metal to start filling the cancer with singlet oxygen.
The researchers found that after attacking a model tumor of lung cancer cells, grown by the researchers in the laboratory to form a tumor-like sphere, with red laser light (which can penetrate deeply through the skin), the activated organic-iridium compound had penetrated and infused into every layer of the tumor to kill it — demonstrating how effective and far-reaching this treatment is.
They also proved that the method is safe to healthy cells by conducting the treatment on non-cancerous tissue and finding it had no effect.
Furthermore, the researchers used state-of-the-art ultrahigh resolution mass spectrometry to gain an unprecedented view of the individual proteins within the cancer cells — allowing them to determine precisely which proteins are attacked by the organic-iridium compound.
After vigorously analyzing huge amounts of data — thousands of proteins from the model cancer cells, they concluded that the iridium compound had damaged the proteins for heat shock stress, and glucose metabolism, both known as key molecules in cancer.