A chemical screen has yielded three compounds that kill cells with abnormal numbers of chromosomes — a common feature of cancer cells.

Angelika Amon and her colleagues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge looked for compounds that block proliferation of mouse cells with extra chromosomes, but that do not affect normal cells.

They found three such compounds, all of which also triggered programmed cell death in the abnormal cells. Two of the chemicals, called AICAR and 17-AAG, also inhibited the growth of human cancer cells with abnormal chromosomes. AICAR stimulates the protein p53, which regulates cell death, and may also exacerbate the stress that these cells experience as a result of the production of excess protein from their extra chromosomes.

Cell 144, 499–512 (2011) 10.1016/j.cell.2011.01.017