Research at Kansas University has led to a new strategy for getting anti-cancer drugs to kill cancer cells, without causing serious harm to normal cells in the body.

The research is reported in the current issue of ACS Chemical Biology, an American Chemical Society journal. Jeffrey Krise, assistant professor of pharmaceutical chemistry, led the research group that included Muralikrishna Duvvuri, Samidha Konkar, Kwon Ho Hong and Brian S. J. Blagg.

The new approach would allow anti-cancer drugs to accumulate in both normal and malignant cells. The drugs would be tweaked with “basic” chemical properties. “Basic” means an alkaline substance like baking soda or laundry detergent.

Normal cells isolate anti-cancer drugs with basic properties, greatly reducing toxic effects. Cancer cells, in contrast, have an impaired ability to isolate basic substances and get hit with a full blast of toxicity. The report describes several anti-cancer drugs with basic properties and notes these findings may explain why these drugs are so effective.