Figure 7.

MTDR preferentially and selectively targets cancer cells. MCF7, MDA-MB-231 and MDA-MB-468 cell monolayers were all treated with MTDR for a period of 72 hours and viability was assessed using Hoechst 33342, a nuclear dye that stains DNA in live cells. Effects of MTDR on the viability in normal human fibroblasts (hTERT-BJ1) were assessed in parallel. Note that MTDR effectively killed MCF7, MDA-MB-231 and MDA-MB-468 cells, but had little or no effect on normal cell viability (hTERT-BJ1), in the same concentration range. Therefore, MTDR was more potent and selective for the targeting of breast cancer cells, relative to normal fibroblasts. The statistical test used was a one-tail unpaired t-test.