"Effectiveness shown in tests on ovarian and bowel cancer    Drug can shut down a cancer cells metabolism    Developed by researchers at the University of Warwicks Warwick Cancer Research Centre    Tests conducted by the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institutes Cancer Genome Project    New drug could be cheaper to produce and less harmful to healthy cells    Tests have shown that a new cancer drug FY is  times more potent than the clinically used treatment Cisplatin.    Based on a compound of the rare precious metal osmium and developed by researchers at the University of Warwicks Department of Chemistry and the Warwick Cancer Research Unit FY is able to shut down a cancer cell by exploiting weaknesses inherent in their energy generation.    The researchers argue that the drug could be cheaper to produce less harmful to healthy cells than existing treatments and has been shown to be active against cancer cells which have become resistant to platinumbased drugs.    The experiments conducted by the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute comprising  cancer cell lines found that FY was  times more potent than cisplatin. Similar results were obtained by the National Cancer Institute USA in tests conducted on  cell lines.    The new drug works by forcing cancer cells to use their mitochondria the power house of a cell to generate the energy necessary to function. Whilst healthy cells use mitochondria to generate energy cancer cells contain defective mitochondria which are incapable of sustaining the cells energy requirements.    In the absence of FY cancer cells switch from using their defective mitochondria to using metabolic activity in their cytoplasm to generate energy. By stopping this switch of energy source the drug causes the cancer cell to die.    Lead researcher Professor Peter Sadler of the University of Warwicks Department of Chemistry said explains    Healthy cells generate their energy in organelles called mitochondria but cancer cells have defective mitochondria and are forced to generate energy through glycolysis in the cytoplasm. Our new compounds work by attacking the energy balance in cancer cells.    Commenting on the drugs benefits when compared to existing platinumbased drugs such as Cisplatin Professor Sadler says    Platinumbased drugs are used in nearly  of all chemotherapeutic regimens and exert their activity by damaging DNA and cannot select between cancerous and noncancerous cells. This can lead to a widerange of sideeffects from renal failure to neurotoxicity ototoxicity nausea and vomiting.    Existing platinumbased cancer treatments often become less effective after the first course as cancer cells learn how they are being attacked but our new osmium compound with its different mechanism of action remains active against cancer cells that have become resistant to drugs such as Cisplatin.    The research could also lead to substantial improvements in cancer survival rates suggests coresearcher Dr Isolda RomeroCanelon    Current statistics indicate that one in every two people will develop some kind of cancer during their life time with approximately one woman dying of ovarian cancer every two hours in the UK according to Cancer Research UK and two deaths every hour from bowel cancer.    It is clear that a new generation of drugs is necessary to save more lives and our research points to a highly effective way of defeating cancerous cells.    The research supported by the European Research Council and titled Potent organoosmium compound shifts metabolism in epithelial ovarian cancer cells is published by PNAS. The paper describes the comprehensive systems biology approach used to elucidate the mechanism of osmium action of FY led by PhD student Jess Hearn. Importantly this analysis also pinpointed  mutations in the mitochondrial DNA of ovarian cancer cells.    Following the successful test results the researchers have been awarded a Wellcome Trust Pathfinder grant to begin preclinical development of organoosmium compounds.    ENDS.    PR  July     Notes    The researchers thank the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council Grant  Systems Biology studentship for J.M.H. the European Research Council Grants  and  and the Wellcome Trust Grants  and  for support as well as the European Union COST Action CM."