Scientists at the University of Auckland in New Zealand have designed a new compound that starves certain cancer cells of glucose, depriving them of energy and causing them to die.
“Normal cells can use glucose efficiently, whereas many cancers produce energy inefficiently through aerobic glycolysis. These cells become addicted to glucose and need to import large quantities of glucose to survive,” explains Associate Professor Michael Hay from the Auckland Cancer Society Research Center (ACSRC) and Maurice Wilkins Center for Molecular Biodiscovery.
“Using STF-31 we have shown that it is possible to selectively inhibit the ability of certain cancer cells to take up glucose. This starves them of energy and causes them to die. Importantly, treatment with STF-31 did not appear to cause toxicity in normal cells and so presages a novel way to selectively target cancer cells.”
Link: http://stm.sciencemag.org/content/3/94/94ra70.abstract
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