Nikhil Prasad Fact checked by:Thailand Medical News Team Dec 11, 2025 1 day, 9 hours, 47 minutes ago
Medical News: Researchers design compound to attack cancer from two fronts with minimal damage to healthy cells
A group of scientists from various international institutions has made an exciting breakthrough in the ongoing search for safer and more effective cancer treatments. They have developed a new class of compounds that can attack two key proteins responsible for cancer growth—VEGFR-2 and c-Met—at the same time. This discovery could lead to more powerful and selective therapies, especially for breast cancer.
New compound shows strong dual action against VEGFR-2 and c-Met in breast cancer cells while sparing healthy tissue
This
Medical News report highlights the collaborative effort involving researchers from Gulf Medical University (UAE), Kafrelsheikh University (Egypt), Cairo University, King Khalid University (Saudi Arabia), Alfaisal University (Saudi Arabia), Donghua University (China), and others. Together, they designed and tested piperidinyl-based benzoxazole compounds, showing remarkable results against cancer cells while sparing healthy cells.
How the New Drug Works
Cancer often thrives by hijacking growth pathways in the body. Two such pathways involve the VEGFR-2 and c-Met proteins, which help tumors grow new blood vessels and spread. While some drugs already target one of these proteins, tumors tend to find ways around them, making treatment less effective over time.
The researchers decided to build a compound that targets both VEGFR-2 and c-Met simultaneously. Their most promising compound, named 11b, was engineered using a hybrid design that includes parts of two known drug structures—sorafenib and cabozantinib. Compound 11b uses a flat benzoxazole ring to fit into the ATP-binding pockets of both target proteins and a flexible piperidine linker to improve binding and stability.
Striking Results in the Lab
Compound 11b showed exceptional potency in lab tests. It effectively shut down VEGFR-2 with an IC50 value of just 0.057 μM and blocked c-Met at 0.181 μM. These results were either equal to or better than well-known cancer drugs like sorafenib and staurosporin.
Importantly, compound 11b was especially effective against breast cancer cells (MCF-7), reducing their growth to a significant extent while having much less effect on healthy breast cells (MCF-10A). The selectivity index (SI) for compound 11b was 7.97—meaning it was nearly eight times more toxic to cancer cells than to normal ones. In contrast, existing drugs like sorafenib scored a lower SI of 4.37.
Triggers Cancer Cell Suicide
To find out how compound 11b kills cancer cells, the researchers studied cell cycle changes and gene expression. They discovered that 11b causes cancer cells to get stuck in the G2/M phase—a point just before they divide. This kind of “cell cycle arrest” stops them from multiplying further.
More importantly, 11b triggered programmed cell death (apoptosi
s), rather than random cell damage (necrosis), which is often responsible for harsh side effects in cancer therapy. Apoptosis-related genes like p53, BAX, and caspase-9 were highly activated, while the anti-apoptotic gene Bcl-2 was suppressed. This gene pattern confirms that compound 11b uses the body’s natural cell death system to eliminate cancer cells.
Promising Future for Breast Cancer Therapy
This novel compound not only fights two cancer-driving proteins at once but also does so with higher precision and fewer side effects on healthy tissues. These traits make compound 11b a strong candidate for future breast cancer drugs, especially in cases where resistance to current treatments is a problem.
The researchers also ran molecular docking studies—computer simulations that visualize how the compound fits into the protein targets. These confirmed that compound 11b binds tightly to both VEGFR-2 and c-Met at critical hotspots, similar to or better than existing drugs.
Conclusions
This breakthrough in dual-target cancer therapy highlights how modern drug design can overcome limitations of current treatments. By attacking two cancer growth pathways at once and minimizing damage to healthy cells, compound 11b could become a game-changer in breast cancer treatment. The findings not only offer hope for better treatment options but also open the door for further refinement and clinical trials.
The study findings were published in the peer reviewed journal: Pharmaceuticals
https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8247/18/12/1875
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https://www.thailandmedical.news/articles/cancer
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