Researchers have developed a new drug which can manipulate the body's natural signalling and energy systems, allowing the body to attack and shut down cancerous cells.
The drug, called ZL105, is a compound based on the precious metal iridium. The study has found ZL105 could potentially replace currently used anticancer drugs, which become less effective over time, cause a wide-range of side-effects and damage healthy cells as well as cancerous.
Commenting on the breakthrough, University of Warwick researcher and study co-author Dr Isolda Romero-Canelon said that the energy-producing machinery in cancer cells works to the limit as it attempts to keep up with quick proliferation and invasion.
She said that this makes cancer cells susceptible to minor changes in the cell 'power-house', asserting that their drug pushes cancer cells over the limit causing them to slow and shut down, whilst normal cells can cope with its effects.
Preliminary data indicate that the novel drug may be ten times more effective in treating ovarian, colon, melanoma, renal, and some breast cancers, according to data obtained by the US National Cancer Institute.
The researchers now aim to expand the study to cancers that are inherently resistant to existing drugs and to those which have developed resistance after a first round of chemotherapy treatments.
The new study has been published in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition.