Don’t get me wrong, our frontline treatments have come so far, and they’re our first resort for a reason. But if you look back at their history, most have actually been around for a while. Of course, surgery dates back thousands of years, but even some of the treatments we perceive as “modern” are quite old. Take a look at chemotherapy and radiation therapy, for example. Both chemotherapy and radiation were pioneered in the late 1800s and have been used to treat cancer for nearly 100 years.

Now, that doesn’t mean that these are bad treatment options; by no means is that the case. They have remained among the most effective treatments despite the leaps and bounds in chemistry and technology since their introduction. Even today, surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy are all frontline treatments, responsible for saving millions of lives. But they’re not perfect, so why not try to improve?

In 2024, a group of researchers from Rice University released their findings, investigating an all-new way to kill cancer. So far, we’ve used chemicals and beams of radiation, but Dr. Ayala-Orozco and his colleagues proposed using molecular jackhammers and infrared light. Now, you’re probably wondering what a molecular jackhammer is, but to understand that, we need to understand an important component of a cell: the plasma membrane.

Following that theme, just as our skin is made up of many components, cells attached to one another, the plasma membrane is also made up of smaller components. In this case, many molecules stick together to form a nice barrier. Now, if our skin is cut or wounded, we can lose blood, and we can die. If a cell’s plasma membrane is compromised, it can also die.

That’s where the molecular jackhammers come in. Molecular jackhammers are just small molecules, but they have two important components: one part that helps with targeting, and one that… vibrates. The targeting portion of the jackhammer specifically attaches to molecules in the plasma membrane. So, if a cell is exposed to a molecular jackhammer, the jackhammer will attach itself to the membrane. When it does, the other portion of the jackhammer is inserted between the molecules of the plasma membrane itself. So, the jackhammer attaches to the surface of the cell, inserts part of itself into the plasma membrane… and then what? Now, we vibrate.

So, if you give a cell a lot of molecular jackhammers, they’ll attach all over the surface of a cell, so when you activate them with near-infrared light, they’ll destroy the membrane of the cell, causing it to die.

It’s important to note that, right now, this work is still in early stages. There is a lot that’s still unknown about this technology, but it still has promise. When we talk about why it would be an improvement over traditional therapies, we have to look at the drawbacks that it overcomes. One major drawback to surgery is that it’s highly invasive, in that to remove a tumour, you need to open someone up. Radiation therapy and chemotherapy have the same major drawback; they’re not specific to cancer. Both can seriously damage healthy cells because they have no mechanism that targets them to a cancer, so when they damage cells, they damage everything.

Molecular jackhammers have the potential to avoid a lot of these. For one, you wouldn’t need to perform a surgery to administer them, which is a huge benefit. But what about cancer-specificity? Well, here’s the thing: the jackhammers themselves aren’t actually cancer-specific. But they don’t have to be!

That means that, if we know the location of the tumour, we can use the laser to activate the jackhammers at the site of the tumour, nowhere else. That could be used to target cancer while avoiding damaging our healthy cells. In their study, they tested this technique on mouse tumour models and found that 50% the animals treated with molecular jackhammers survived past seven months. That’s incredible.

The world of cancer treatment is constantly evolving, but for the past century, it has been largely dominated by surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, and biological therapies. Now, that’s not a bad thing; these are incredible treatments that have seen countless advancements in the past hundred years. Collectively, they protect and help save millions of cancer patients each year. That’s no small feat, and something worth acknowledging. With that said, there’s always room for improvement. Researchers are always looking for ways to advance treatment efficacy and reduce side effects. The molecular jackhammers proposed by Dr. Ayala-Orozco and his colleagues are a prime example of that. Although their work is still early and needs more research to know if it will be truly viable, it’s an exciting advancement and has real potential.

I hope you learned a little something today, but next week we’re staying on the theme of cancer treatment as we talk about the long history of chemotherapy.

See you next week!

If you missed last week’s letter, you can read “The Microscopic Topic” to learn a little more about the use of microscopes in cancer research and treatment.