Scientists Develop AI Framework and Targeted Drug for Cancer Treatment

Researchers have introduced an AI framework called ACSCeND to identify rare cancer stem-like cells and a small-molecule drug, RK-251, designed to kill malignant cells without harming healthy tissue.

The ACSCeND tool, validated against 25,000 tumour samples, detects three states of stem-like cells, while RK-251 releases the anti-cancer compound NBDHEX only when triggered by high reactive oxygen species levels.

Lab tests on triple-negative breast cancer cells and zebrafish embryos confirmed that RK-251 effectively targets malignant cells while showing no observable toxicity to non-cancerous tissues.