Jerusalem.- A group of researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel have found a method to administer chemotherapy only to malignant cells, setting aside the damage that current chemotherapy causes to healthy cells. Alexander Binshtok, research leader stressed that most current cancer treatments are not specific and damage both healthy and defected cells, damaging healthy cells is what causes many of the side effects of this Treatment.
According to the journal Frontiers in Pharmacology, it focused on the selective expression of the TRPV2 protein by cancer cells, which when activated opens a channel within cell membranes. Samples of cancer cells in the liver that were inserted with a low dose of doxorubicin, a chemotherapeutic agent, were also tested, causing chemotherapy to only harm diseased cells. The accuracy of this delivery method could allow doctors in the future to prescribe lower doses of chemotherapy; in addition to avoiding some side effects of this medicine.
