Polishing a Brighter Gold for Cancer Treatment
Gold-based drugs may be the key to a cancer
cure |
In the race to find a more user-friendly, broad-based
cure for cancer, a recent breakthrough by NUS researchers holds
the promise of bringing the search to a happy ending.
The most widely used treatment for many types
of cancers presently is platinum-centred drugs. These, however,
have a major drawback - their debilitating side-effects. Joining
the search for a more viable alternative, a NUS multi-disciplinary
research team headed by Associate Professor Leung Pak Hing (Department
of Chemistry) struck gold when it came up with a new class of phosphine-supported
gold complexes specially designed for gold-based cancer treating
drugs.
Research on anti-cancer gold-based drugs until
now has been confined to simple undesigned phosphines (phosphorous
compounds). They gave irregular and uncontrolled results at clinical
testing. A/P Leung gave NUS research the cutting edge when he developed
a catalyst that could synthesise enantiomerically pure phosphine
ligands in two hours in a standard laboratory. Supported by these
phosphine ligunds, gold complexes take on potent and controllable
anti-tumour activity.
A/P Leung at work in his laboratory |
The more stable gold-phosphorous formula has given
rise to 50 drugs which work on a dual-action mechanism -- the phosphorous
zooms in on the sulphur-content of cancer cells while the gold kills
off the cells. Two drugs in particular have shown great promise
as cures for lymphoma, leukemia and liver cancer.
Laboratory tests have shown that when injected
on human cancer cells implanted into mice the gold-phosphorous drug
stopped the cancer from spreading. A/P Leung is waiting for his
patent to be approved before he begins clinical trials. He intends
to focus his testing on cancers that are more prevalent in Asia,
like liver and nasal cancer.
A/P Leung is confident that when he has fully
developed a marketable drug it will have an 80 per cent success
rate with cancer patients. The waiting time is another five to ten
more years but for cancer patients everywhere the light at the end
of the tunnel shines brighter now.
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