American scientists published a paper in the journal Nature Cancer published on the 13th, saying that in a series of experiments on mice, they found that an enzyme produced in liver cancer cells can convert a group of compounds into anticancer drugs, which can kill cancer cells and reduce animal diseases. This enzyme may lead to a series of new drugs for the treatment of liver cancer and other diseases. The latest research was carried out by a team led by cancer expert Nabil Badisi of Massachusetts General Hospital and a team led by Matthew Hall of the National Institutes of Health. Cholangiocarcinoma is characterized by mutations in IDH1 enzyme. Badisi's team hopes to find compounds and drugs that can effectively respond to IDH1 mutations. Hall et al., taking IDH1 as the target, quickly tested the killing effect of thousands of approved drugs and experimental cancer drugs on cholangiocarcinoma cells. As a result, they found some molecules that could kill cancer cells, including a molecule named YC-1. However, subsequent studies showed that YC-1 did not affect the mutation of IDH1. Further research shows that liver cancer cells will produce an enzyme named SULT1A1, which will activate the YC-1 compound, so that it can poison cancer cell culture and tumor cells in the liver cancer mouse model, and the liver tumor in the animal model will either grow slowly or shrink. However, when YC-1 is used to treat animals with cancer cells lacking this enzyme, the tumor does not change, which highlights the importance of SULT1A1 enzyme. The research team said that this latest discovery has broader significance for the development of new anti-cancer drugs. Moreover, in addition to SULT1A1, the human sulfotransferase SULT4A1 is very active in the human brain and can activate molecules similar to YC-1, which may help to develop drugs for brain cancer. (Xinhua News Agency)