Cancer represents a colossal challenge that can affect us all in our life. Solutions exist in certain cases to fight against this scourge: in parallel with conventional methods that are surgery, radiotherapy or chemotherapy, new weapons such as immunotherapy and hormone therapy show an effective effectiveness.
At the same time, many ambitious projects continue to be carried out. This is the case with that of researcher Luc Berthiaume in Canada. He hopes to develop a simplified anticancer treatment, in the form of a pill to be taken every day at home. The advantages of such treatment, if it could be managed, are multiple: it would first be a real comfort for the patient, and also a way of unclogging hospitals.
Its operating principle is target cancer cells while sparing normal cells, Thanks to a molecule with an improbable name (PCLX-001). The researcher and his team were interested in two enzymes, both essential for cell survival: NMT1 and NMT2. The difference between healthy and cancer cells is that the former produce the 2 types of enzymes and not the seconds. It is this weak point that the target researcher.
When her famous molecule enters a cell, she binds to NMT1 to stop her action. No problem for a healthy cell since it still produces NMT2, which allows it to stay alive. On the other hand for the cancer cell, it is the death guaranteed because it does not produce NMT2 to compensate.
