New Nanomaterial Kills Cancer Cells While Sparring Healthy Tissues

Malignant tumors are more acidic than healthy tissue and contain higher levels of hydrogen peroxide, conditions that can be harnessed to generate toxic reactive oxygen species. However, existing therapies typically trigger only a single oxidative reaction, limiting their effectiveness. Researchers have now developed a nanomaterial that activates two complementary chemical reactions inside cancer cells, leading to complete tumor eradication while sparing healthy tissue.

Researchers at Oregon State University (Corvallis, OR, USA) have designed an iron-based metal-organic framework (MOF) nanomaterial engineered to function specifically within the tumor microenvironment. The approach builds on chemodynamic therapy principles by using tumor acidity and elevated hydrogen peroxide levels to activate catalytic reactions directly inside cancer cells.

Conventional chemodynamic therapies primarily generate hydroxyl radicals, highly reactive molecules that damage cellular components such as DNA, proteins, and lipids through oxidative stress. More recent strategies can also produce singlet oxygen, another toxic reactive oxygen species with a distinct electronic configuration. The newly developed MOF nanoagent is uniquely capable of generating both hydroxyl radicals and singlet oxygen simultaneously, with high catalytic efficiency that sustains continuous reactive oxygen species production within tumors.

In laboratory testing, the nanoagent demonstrated potent toxicity across multiple cancer cell lines while causing negligible harm to noncancerous cells. In mouse models implanted with human breast cancer cells, systemic administration of the nanoagent resulted in efficient tumor accumulation and robust oxidative stress within the cancer tissue. The treatment led to complete tumor regression and long-term prevention of recurrence without detectable systemic toxicity.

The findings, published in Advanced Functional Materials, suggest that dual-reactive chemodynamic therapy may overcome key limitations of earlier designs that produced only partial tumor responses. By combining two oxidative mechanisms in a single nanoagent, the approach may deliver more durable therapeutic outcomes across a range of cancers. The researchers plan to evaluate the nanoagent’s effectiveness in additional malignancies, including aggressive pancreatic cancer, to assess its broader clinical potential.

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