A local team of scientists has developed a method of delivering drugs specifically to cancer cells, and to monitor the delivery and absorption of the drugs, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said Thursday.

In the team led by professors Kim Jong-seung of Korea University and Kang Chul-hoon of Kyung Hee University, the scientists linked the anti-cancer compound camptothecin to a compoung called RGD. The team also attached a fluorescent marker to the compound, enabling tracking of the compound.

RGD, a chain of arginine, glycine and aspartic acid amino acids, is found in proteins that help form blood vessels in tumors.

According to the ministry, as a large number of receptors that recognize the sequence are found on the surface of cancer cells, the short peptide sequence acted as a guiding group that gave the compound specificity to cancer cells.

In addition to developing a way of tracking drug delivery and targeting cancer cells, the team’s method could enable the clinical use of camptothecin.

Although camptothecin has strong anti-cancer characteristics, the compound has been of little clinical use ibecause of strong side effects, low solubility and rapid disintegration in the blood, the ministry said.

However, by attaching the fluorescent marker, the team was able to produce camptothecin as a prodrug. A prodrug is a compound that consists of a drug and an unrelated group that needs to be detached in order for the functional part of the compound to show its effects.

By Choi He-suk  (cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)