Iron is toxic to cancer cells. It might even be lethal.

Researchers created an intelligent weapon out of effective FDA-approved cancer treatment with serious side effects. The new drug is more effective at targeting cancerous cells while causing no harm to healthy cells.

Because cancer has an insatiable need for iron, researchers were able to develop iron-seeking medicines that only work in iron-rich cancer cells by incorporating a chemical sensor into existing drugs. The drugs inhibited tumor growth in mouse models while leaving other tissues alone, such as the skin.

The researchers revealed that some cancer cells contain a significant amount of iron.

The new drugs were effective against cancer cells with a specific genetic flaw known as a RAS mutation, a treatment-resistant type of cancer and accounts for about a quarter of all cancer deaths.

"RAS mutations alone cause tremendous pain and claim so many lives around the world," a doctor said.

"Studies will get us closer to meeting the unmet need for better cancer treatment."

Cancers referred to as "Death Stars" include: Your genetic code controls everything your cells do, including growing and dividing. When a cell turns malignant, it berserk, resulting in unregulated growth and tumor formation. In healthy cells, the RAS gene prevents this from happening. Hence a RAS mutation has the potential to cause cancer.

According to researchers, current cancer treatments are effective in slowing this growth, but there is a big catch. Many of these therapies also inhibit the growth of healthy cells, resulting in severe side effects such as pain, bleeding gums, difficulties breathing, and extreme sunburns, which patients may find painful.

The drug may be programmed to activate only when it comes into touch with a cancerous cell by including a molecular sensor.

"Cobimetinib is an anticancer medication that we know works successfully on its target," says Adam Renslo, a UCSF pharmaceutical scientist and co-senior author.

One RAS mutation is notoriously difficult to treat. The KRAS protein has been dubbed "Cancer's Death Star" due to its lethality and smooth, round shape, and it has proven to be extremely difficult to target. According to GEN, the KRAS mutation is most common in pancreas and lung cancers, colon cancer, and numerous types of leukemia, all of which are highly fatal tumors.

These new iron-seeking drugs, published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, may give us another opportunity at a Death Star trench run.

According to GEN, the quantity of cobimetinib that patients can tolerate is frequently lower than the FDA-approved limit for efficacy due to the drug's terrible side effects on healthy cells.

A more targeted approach is required to attack cells with RAS mutations.

According to the researchers, several KRAS cells showed elevated levels of ferrous iron. They ensured that the anticancer drug remained inactive until it met iron by connecting a chemical sensor that detects iron to it, protecting healthy cells with little iron.

This iron-seeking version of the drug was equally effective in preventing KRAS tumors in mice as the standard carpet-bombing version.

"This is an excellent, well-thought-out strategy for specifically targeting cancer cells, and it's hopeful," said Hossein Ardehali, a cardiologist at Northwestern. Ardehali's lab, which studies the cancer-iron link, was not included.

Better weapons: UCSF's Collison works with RAS mutation cancer patients regularly, experiencing their challenges and agony, and he is hopeful that new, wiser medicine may soon be able to help those people combat cancer without becoming too beaten up themselves.

"By removing toxicity from the equation, you're talking about not just one novel drug, but ten distinct combinations that you can now evaluate in the clinic," - RENSLO, ADAM.

Because of its lower toxicity, the iron-targeting version of the medication might be used with other, less toxic treatments at lower doses, potentially allowing for new anticancer combinations.

"By removing toxicity from the equation, you're talking about not just one new treatment, but ten different combinations that you might potentially contemplate pursuing in the clinic," Renslo adds.

"That would be the nail in the coffin for this plan."