In recent decades, cancer stem cells (CSCs) have been increasingly identified as responsible for tumor heterogeneity, metastasis, chemoresistance, and relapse.

While conventional chemotherapy can eradicate the majority of non-CSC tumor cells, CSCs are inherently drug-resistant, driving tumor recurrence and metastasis.11 These limitations, associated with conventional chemotherapy, highlight the need to develop CSC-specific therapies.

IGN -111 is a synthetic, ruthenium-containing complex (small molecule), that targets and eliminates CSC populations in primary human adenocarcinoma cells demonstrating high selectivity and low toxicity.

IGN-111 acts through a novel mechanism of action, different than that of traditional cisplatin-based drugs, by binding to specific guanines present in the promoter region of the mitochondrial genome. As a consequence, mitochondrial respiration of CSCs is reduced, and this cell population is left biological impaired.

This potential treatment is also effective to remove hybrid non-CSC that could potentially repopulate the CSCs pool.

The research and development behind IGN -111 has been performed through a collaborative project between the Research Center CiQUS from the Universidade de Santiago de Compostela (USC, Galicia, Spain) and the Department of Biochemistry from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM, Madrid, Spain).