Making cancer cells explode while leaving nearby healthy cells in the un-exploded state is much harder.
Hah...any suicide bomber knows that.;-)
It sounds as if this Vacquinol-1 is specifically attracted to glioblastoma cells, from the way the article was written at least.
Indeed.
I have had great success killing cancer cells with plain old bleach in the lab. Bleach is effective, but would never be a good chemotherapy agent due to its high toxicity against just about everything.
The cells are not exploding. The colloquial term is used to simplify the article for the layperson. The cells undergo apoptosis, or programed cell death. This is a natural process in the body. After a cell is marked for termination, other cells may carry them to points of extcretion through the vascular system.
As you read this, millions of your cells are dying. Don’t panic—you won’t miss them. Most of them are either superfluous or potentially harmful, so you’re better off without them. In fact, your health depends on the judicious use of a certain kind of cell death - or apoptosis.