Designer molecules that seek and destroy cancer cells

Aggressive cancer treatments like chemotherapy works by killing diseased cells. But these therapies also harm healthy cells and leave the patient weak and more vulnerable to other complications. But a promising technology developed at Stanford University kills diseased cells ONLY!

Researchers led by Christina Smolke have developed “intelligent molecules” that can go into the cells and look for biomarkers (changes in the abundance of proteins or other biomolecule levels) before acting to either destroy or leave the cells alone. Only cells that have the biomarkers are destroyed by the molecules.

Intelligent molecules can be used in many different applications in therapies. Cancer treatments alone can benefit tremendously as the molecules destroy cancer cells and leave the healthy ones intact. In other applications, the molecules can also target specific cell functions or behavior in a diseased cell that need to be controlled. They can identify viral infections at the molecular level. They can determine the cells’ responses to certain drugs or immune response.

Science Daily has a detailed report here – Engineers Create Intelligent Molecules That Seek-and-destroy Diseased Cells.