Why this matters:

• These new chemicals provide targeted therapy to cancer cells while sparing healthy cells.
• This therapy provides new opportunities for delivering drugs to other types of cancers.
• Typically, patients using photodynamic therapy must limit their sun exposure during and after treatment. These new chemicals flush out of the body faster. 
• A wife and husband professor team at Michigan State University are collaborating with researchers at the University of California, Riverside to create a new light-activated “smart” bomb to treat aggressive breast cancer.

Sophia Lunt, an MSU professor in biochemistry and molecular biology in the College of Natural Science, and Richard Lunt, an MSU professor and Johansen-Crosby Endowed Professor in Chemical Engineering in the College of Engineering, along with Vincent Lavallo, a professor of chemistry at the University of California, Riverside, have combined their expertise to help develop new light-sensitive chemicals called cyanine-carborane salts that are used in photodynamic therapy, or PDT, to destroy metastatic breast cancer tumors in mice with minimal side effects.

“Our innovative cyanine-carborane salts offer a targeted option with reduced side effects for patients with aggressive breast cancer,” said Sophia Lunt. “We expect this research will lead to safer and more effective therapies for patients with limited treatment options.”