The Development of Enzyme-Activated Prochelators Designed to Target Cancer Cells Overexpressing γ-glutamyltransferase

Millions of people around the world eventually develop or currently suffer from some form of cancer. According to the American Cancer Society, 1.6 million new cases of cancer were predicted in the United States alone.One of the main reasons for this high mortality rate is that cancer can be an exceedingly difficult disease to treat. In response to the need for better drugs, enzymatically-activated Cu prochelators (GluBro and GluTCarb) have been developed to specifically target cancer cells and create cytotoxic complexes within tumor tissue. The experiments performed herein suggest both GluBro and GluTCarb demonstrate cancer selective cellular activity dependent on the presence of Cu and the enzyme gamma-glutamyltransferase