NCFU researchers, supervised by Prof. Alexander Aksenov, managed to synthesize substances that proved highly effective when used to treat neuroblastoma – a malignant tumor affecting the nervous system. The compounds deliberately trigger apoptosis – cancer-affected cells self-destruction.

The researchers explained that such substances now enjoy lots of demand in treating cancer, and all in al they have developed around thirty various substances in question, all of them tried by colleagues from the University of Texas.

The unique part here is not just the compound itself, yet also the method of producing it – the NCFU researchers have been the first ones to employ chlornitrosterols.

– This reagent allows creating unique and previously inaccessible substances, which also reveal a very high yield of the latter with no undesirable impurities, - Prof. Aksenov noted. – The reaction itself is cascaded, so we don’t have to start the reactor several times and carry out any extra operations, which reduces the production cost. Besides, commercially available substrates are used to synthesize the compound. If, further on, the compound becomes part of a new anti-cancer drug, it will be not expensive.

The study was conducted with the support from the Russian Foundation for Basic Research and the American Institute of Health. In the nearest future, the researchers plan to carry out a trial involving mice.

The outcomes of the research have entered the respective article published in the Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry Journal (Great Britain). For more details, please follow the link.