Cancer tumours in mice shrunk thanks to oxygen-sucking battery

Implanting oxygen-consuming batteries into cancerous mice resulted in tumor shrinkage or disappearance in two weeks when used with an experimental class of anticancer drugs.

As most tumors grow, they consume oxygen from the surrounding non-cancerous tissue, resulting in anoxic or hypoxic conditions. One class of drugs, called hypoxia-activated prodrugs (HAPs), seeks to take advantage of this property by killing only those cells exhibiting hypoxia, thus leaving healthy cells less susceptible to treatment. Side effects are reduced. However, there are no HAPs approved for clinical use due to limited evidence regarding HAP efficacy.

Currently, Huang Zhang of Fudan University in Shanghai, China, and his colleagues use ambient-infused salt water to create a self-recharging implantable battery that produces very low-voltage electricity and consumes oxygen. developed a battery. By creating a hypoxic environment, the battery should optimize his HAP action.

“The battery covers the tumor and can sustainably consume the oxygen within it for over 14 days, much longer than previous agents. [that worked for] Usually within two days,” says Zhang.

Zhang and his team implanted batteries in some of the armpits of 25 mice with breast cancer. Five received a working battery and her HAP treatment. The remaining mice were divided into groups receiving no treatment, receiving HAP drugs alone, implanting non-functioning batteries, or using only batteries operating for up to 500 hours in mouse tissue.

After 14 days, the tumors in 5 mice treated with actuated cells and HAP had shrunk by an average of 90%, with 4 mice having complete tumor disappearance. Tumors remained the same size or grew in other mouse groups.

While the battery didn’t raise any safety concerns when used in mice, safety standards are higher for humans, so further testing was done to ensure compatibility with human tissue before testing on humans. Research is needed, says Zhang.

Randall Johnson of the University of Cambridge says that inducing hypoxia in tumors can have downsides, such as making the cancer more likely to spread to other parts of the body. This didn’t happen in mice, but he says the costs and benefits of using the battery in humans need to be evaluated before treatment in humans.