Ferrous iron-activatable drug conjugates (FeADCs) are drugs that are activated by ferrous iron, and they could be helpful in making anticancer drugs avoid targeting healthy cells. Up to 20% of human cancers have cells that have a higher affinity for a special type of iron called ferrous iron, which seems to be integral to upkeep tumour growth. After making FeADC versions of anti-cancer drugs, researchers observed that the drugs were effective at inhibiting tumour growth and caused no damage to healthy tissue. Read full article here
Oddities
The Curious Case of the Ancient Brain
In 2008, archaeologists examining the University of York discovered something strange: the decapitated head of an Iron Age man and his very shrivelled but very much intact brain. How a centuries-old brain was preserved is still unknown, but research suggests that it could have been because of brain diseases like dementia. The Yorkshire man’s brain’s proteins were bunched up together, much like how dementia causes brain proteins to bunch up into plaques. This bunching up, or aggregation, could continue even after death, turning regions of the brain into hard masses. Read full article here
Merv
September 30, 2022
