Research shows how anti-cancer drug works

EVANSTON, Ill., Nov. 26 (UPI) -- Researchers at Illinois' Northwestern University said they discovered how the drug tetrathiomolybdate, which is used to fight some metastatic cancers, works.

Northwestern said in a release Thursday while it is known the drug can help fight certain metastatic cancers and Wilson disease, researchers at the university have discovered an invaluable clue to the drug's inner-workings.

The researchers said the drug results in metallochaperones being sequestered in the body along with the copper they contain, stopping the normal functioning of both inside the cell.

The research study's author, Thomas V. O'Halloran, said his team's findings should allow for the development of new drugs oriented toward metal trafficking pathways.

"Essential metals are at the center of many emerging problems in health, medicine and the environment, and this work opens the door to new biological experiments," the Charles E. and Emma H. Morrison professor of chemistry at Northwestern said.

Also credited in the study of tetrathiomolybdate's three-dimensional structure are Northwestern professor of biochemistry, molecular biology and cell biology, Alfonso Mondragón, and graduate student Yi Xue. The study is being published in Science Express.