Promising research out of the University of Windsor has identified a synthetic compound that can target and destroy cancer cells.
"We were very surprised to find that they were very selective to cancer cells, they were not targeting normal cells and that was the one important finding," says chemistry professor Dr. Siyaram Pandey.
In lab tests the compound, inspired by the spider lily plant, targeted the weakest part of the cancer cell, the mitochondria, and destroyed it while leaving healthy, normal cells be.
"Healthy cells have very good mitochondria , they are not affected by this compound but cancer cells have their weakness in the mitochondria and they just get killed," says Pandey.
Pandey says it's an exciting development in cancer research because it's been tested on and successfully killed 20 varieties of cancer cells.
Pandey says to bring the research to clinical trial a pharmaceutical company would have to develop the drug and have it approved for human clinical studies.
"Generally by and large when we have completed pre-clinical work then those manufacturers or bio-chem pharma people take up these compounds... for clinical studies," says Pandey.
The research was completed in collaboration with researchers James McNulty from McMaster University and Tomas Hudlicky from Brock University.