{"id":91147,"date":"2019-05-22T16:23:24","date_gmt":"2019-05-22T23:23:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2019\/05\/newly-discovered-hybrid-molecules-could-serve-as-a-novel-category-of-anti-cancer-agent"},"modified":"2019-05-22T21:24:03","modified_gmt":"2019-05-23T04:24:03","slug":"newly-discovered-hybrid-molecules-could-serve-as-a-novel-category-of-anti-cancer-agent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2019\/05\/newly-discovered-hybrid-molecules-could-serve-as-a-novel-category-of-anti-cancer-agent","title":{"rendered":"Newly discovered hybrid molecules could serve as a novel category of anti-cancer agent"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/newly-discovered-hybrid-molecules-could-serve-as-a-novel-category-of-anti-cancer-agent2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Researchers from NYU Abu Dhabi\u2019s (NYUAD) chemistry program and colleagues from the University\u2019s biology program have developed and studied the biological activity of five new, metal-organic hybrid knotted molecules, termed metal-organic trefoil knots (M-TKs). These molecules can effectively deliver metals to cancer cells, demonstrating the potential to act as a new category of anti-cancer agents.<\/p>\n<p>In a study published in the journal <i>Chemical Science<\/i>, NYUAD Research Scientists Farah Benyettou and Thirumurugan Prakasam from the Trabolsi Research Group, led by NYUAD Associate Professor of Chemistry Ali Trabolsi, report that these nanoscale, water-soluble M-TKs showed high potency in vitro against six cancer cell lines and in vivo in zebrafish embryos. Zebrafish-related studies were performed by NYUAD Postdoctoral Associate Anjana Ramdas Nair from the Sadler Lab.<\/p>\n<p>The M-TKs, generated by metal-templated self-assembly of a simple pair of chelating ligands, were well tolerated in vitro by non-cancer cells but were significantly more potent than cisplatin, a common chemotherapy medication, in both human cancer cells\u2014including those that were cisplatin-resistant\u2014and in zebrafish embryos. In cultured cells, M-TKs introduce reactive oxygen species (ROS) that damage the mitochondria of cancer cells, but not the nuclear DNA or the plasma membrane.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2019-05-newly-hybrid-molecules-category-anti-cancer.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2019-05-newly-hybrid-molecules-category-anti-cancer.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2019-05-newly-hybrid-molecules-category-anti-cancer.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><\/p>\n<div style=\"clear:both;\">Read more<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2019-05-newly-hybrid-molecules-category-anti-cancer.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2019-05-newly-hybrid-molecules-category-anti-cancer.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Researchers from NYU Abu Dhabi\u2019s (NYUAD) chemistry program and colleagues from the University\u2019s biology program have developed and studied the biological activity of five new, metal-organic hybrid knotted molecules, termed metal-organic trefoil knots (M-TKs). These molecules can effectively deliver metals to cancer cells, demonstrating the potential to act as a new category of anti-cancer agents. [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":513,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-chemistry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/513"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91147"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91160,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91147\/revisions\/91160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}