The chemotherapy drug motexafin gadolinium (brand name: Xcytrin, manufactured by Pharmacyclics, Inc.) works to thwart cancer cells by disrupting key enzymes involved in cellular metabolism, according to a team of researchers led by Joseph Hacia, Ph.D., assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California. The cellular disruption results in increases in the amount of zinc available inside the cancer cells, and because zinc is involved in protein structure and function, leads to inhibition of enzyme activity and to the death of the cells. A paper describing these findings was published in the May 1, 2005, issue of the journal Cancer Research.
