Scientists literally are shining a light on cancer cells’ energy centers to damage these power sources and trigger widespread cancer cell death, reports Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News.

In a new study in Cancer Research, researchers combined strategies to deliver energy-disrupting gene therapy using nanoparticles manufactured to zero in only on cancer cells..

Experiments showed the targeted therapy is effective at shrinking glioblastoma brain tumors and aggressive breast cancer tumors in mice.

The team says it overcame a significant challenge to break up structures inside these cellular energy centers (mitochondria) with a technique—mLumiOpto—that induces light-activated electrical currents inside the cell.

“We disrupt the membrane so mitochondria cannot work functionally to produce energy or work as a signaling hub. This causes programmed cell death followed by DNA damage. Our investigations showed these two mechanisms are involved and kill the cancer cells,” said co-lead author Lufang Zhou, PhD, professor of biomedical engineering and surgery at The Ohio State University. “This is how the technology works by design.”

Mitochondria have been considered an attractive anti-cancer therapeutic target for years, but their impermeable inner membrane complicates these efforts. Zhou’s lab cracked the code five years ago by figuring out how to exploit the inner membrane’s vulnerability—an electrical charge differential that keeps its structure intact and functions on track.