文摘
Designing a therapeutic that can distinguish diseased cells from healthy neighboring cells is the dream of rational drug design. Since druggable protein targets are often also expressed in other cell types, researchers continue to test new strategies to achieve a 鈥渟mart drug.鈥?/p>
Quelling Cancer鈥檚 Ether Binge
Lipid metabolism is often altered in cancer cells as proliferation demands construction of new cell membranes and some lipid signaling molecules promote tumor growth. One lipid class that is often elevated in tumors, the ether lipids, are marked by the presence of one or more ether linkages along the glycerol backbone normally populated with ester linkages.