It is found that molecules called metal organic trefoil show the potential of a new anticancer drug

Published in chemical science, researchers from New York University and colleagues from the University's biological program developed and studied the biological activities of five novel metal organic hybrid knot molecules, known as metal organic trefoil (m-tks) These molecules can effectively transfer metals to cancer cells, showing the potential as a new anticancer drug (http:// The study was led by chemistry professor Ali trabolsi and completed by research scientists Farah benyettou and thirumurugan prakasam M-tks is formed by self-assembly of a pair of single chelating ligands Are non cancer cells well tolerated in vitro, but the toxicity of m-tks in cisplatin tolerant human cancer cells and zebrafish embryos is higher than that of cisplatin In the cultured cells, the introduction of ROS by m-tks can destroy the mitochondria of cancer cells, but not the nuclear DNA or cell membrane In many cases, m-tks synthesized by thirumurugan prakasam (http:// has stronger antitumor activity than cisplatin and other metal complexes previously reported The main delivery pathways of the drug are macropinocytosis and endocytosis mediated by caveolin and trellis, which are more active in cancer cells than in normal cells Cisplatin and other small molecules penetrate the cell through diffusion, so they have poor selectivity to tumor in vitro The researchers hypothesized that the molecules they developed were less toxic to healthy (http:// cells because they were less internalized In the next stage of m-tks development, the research will focus on the mechanism of m-tks to determine whether the ROS mediated toxicity involves specific intracellular targets These findings confirm the feasibility of studying the effects of these compounds on vertebrates as a whole, because zebrafish is well tolerated to m-tks and seems to be able to selectively attack mitotic cells.