Tumor Acidity 'pH' Used as a Key to Targeted Cancer Cell Therapy

Professor Yujahng Yoo (right) and Researcher Seongeon Jin at UNIST.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Hwang Dooyul] Tumors composed of cancer cells exhibit a weakly acidic pH of 5.6 to 6.8, and utilizing this characteristic, an anticancer therapeutic substance capable of killing cancer cells has been developed.

UNIST announced on the 12th that Professor Yujahyeong's team in the Department of Chemistry developed a substance that responds only to the tumor microenvironment and introduced a new technology for anticancer treatment using it.

The newly developed substance is attracting attention as an effective means to damage the ‘mitochondria,’ the energy source within cancer cells.

The substance remains stable in the human body but breaks apart upon encountering tumors, allowing it to enter cancer cells, thus exhibiting high targeting ability.

The newly developed substance forms a ‘Micelle structure’ through self-assembly.

The micelle structure refers to a spherical shape with an oil-friendly interior and a water-friendly exterior, which is stable in the biological environment and can move without harming other cells.

When molecules moving inside the body in the micelle structure reach the tumor vicinity, the ‘succinic amide’ molecules affected by the acidic environment break apart. At this time, the micelle structure collapses, converting into monomeric form and penetrating the mitochondria inside cancer cells.

Once inside the mitochondria, the molecules undergo self-assembly again, damaging the mitochondrial membrane. The damaged mitochondria become dysfunctional, ultimately causing the cancer cells to die.

Jin Seongeon, first author and integrated MS-PhD course researcher in the Department of Chemistry at UNIST, explained, “While the area around normal cells is neutral with a pH of about 7.4, the tumor area composed of cancer cells is weakly acidic with a pH of 5.6 to 6.8. We focused on this and added additional functions to existing mitochondria-targeting substances.”

The newly developed substance is differentiated by complementing the shortcomings of existing mitochondria-targeting anticancer substances and enhancing targeting ability.

Existing substances existed as monomers and could not remain long in the body, but this issue was resolved by the micelle structure.

Also, it converts into monomeric form only upon reaching the tumor, destroying the mitochondria of cancer cells and increasing targeting ability.

Professor Yujahyeong said, “The development of substances that respond only to the tumor microenvironment enables effective anticancer strategies with targeted treatment for cancer cells,” and added, “It will become a new platform for drug development based on weakly acidic environments in the future.”

The research was jointly conducted with Professor Kwak Sanggyu’s team from the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Korea University and Professor Kim Sehun’s team from the KU-KIST Graduate School of Converging Science and Technology.

The research results were published on October 3 in Advanced Functional Materials.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.