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Enhanced Cancer Drugs
26 September 2014

Enhanced Cancer Drugs

This is a cluster of breast cancer cells (shown in blue) in which some cells (pink) are dying after treatment with a drug called doxorubicin, which triggers apoptosis or programmed cell-death – where cells effectively commit suicide. Doxorubicin is also toxic to non-cancerous cells, and heart cells in particular, which limits the amount that doctors can give to patients. To overcome the problem, researchers want to deliver the drug directly to tumours in molecules chemically modified to target cancer cells. One promising approach is to combine the drug with dendrimers, repetitively branched snowflake-like molecules that can be tailor-made to have particular properties. When doxorubicin was combined with a dendrimer known to inhibit blood vessel growth, the complex penetrated tumours better than the drug alone in living mice and killed more cancer cells. The results suggest that this combination could be a good way to design new cancer drugs.

Written by Daniel Cossins

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BPoD stands for Biomedical Picture of the Day. Managed by the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences until Jul 2023, it is now run independently by a dedicated team of scientists and writers. The website aims to engage everyone, young and old, in the wonders of biology, and its influence on medicine. The ever-growing archive of more than 4000 research images documents over a decade of progress. Explore the collection and see what you discover. Images are kindly provided for inclusion on this website through the generosity of scientists across the globe.

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