RK-251 Drug:
The Ministry of Science and Technology informed about a new smart drug named RK-251 that can replace traditional chemotherapy.
- RK-251 Drug is a smart cancer drug designed to activate primarily in cancer cells and does not harm healthy cells.
- When RK-251 enters a cancer cell with high reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels, these molecules trigger the drug’s activation, releasing an anticancer compound called NBDHEX.
- NBDHEX blocks target proteins that many cancer cells use to survive and resist treatment.
- The idea is to keep RK-251 relatively inactive in normal tissues and activate its anticancer action inside cancer cells.
- It exhibited strong activity against aggressive triple-negative breast cancer cells, with much less effect on healthy cells.
- It displayed the desired fluorescence in the presence of reactive oxygen species.
- The fluorescence response also provides an indication that the drug is being activated in an ROS-rich environment, supporting the underlying mechanism of the targeted approach.
