A research team has unveiled a small molecule that hunts down a cancer-enabling RNA and quietly erases it.
Researchers have designed a groundbreaking drug molecule capable of precisely eliminating TERRA, an RNA molecule that some cancer cells rely on to survive. Using a sophisticated method known as “RIBOTAC” technology, the new compound seeks out TERRA within cells and destroys it while leaving normal molecules untouched.
This advancement could open the door to a new generation of RNA-based cancer therapies that address the genetic causes of the disease rather than only managing its symptoms.
A team at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has created this innovative molecule to specifically target and break down an RNA component connected to cancer development. The study, published in Advanced Sciences, was led by Dr. Raphael I. Benhamou, Elias Khaskia, and Dipak Dahatonde from the university’s Faculty of Medicine. Their research centers on TERRA, a molecule that helps maintain the protective ends of chromosomes, structures that safeguard DNA and support cellular stability.
When TERRA malfunctions, it can interfere with the normal process of cell aging and division. In some cancers, particularly aggressive types affecting the brain and bones, cancer cells exploit TERRA to continue growing and avoiding death.
“We’ve created a tool that acts like a guided missile for bad RNA,” said Dr. Benhamou. “It can find TERRA inside cancer cells and make it disappear — without harming healthy parts of the cell.”
How the RIBOTAC Works
The team built a small molecule using a technology called RIBOTAC, short for Ribonuclease-Targeting Chimera. This molecule can recognize a unique shape that TERRA folds into — known as a G-quadruplex — and then call in a natural cell enzyme, RNase L, to cut the RNA apart.
This is the first time scientists have been able to destroy TERRA so precisely. The molecule only targets TERRA and leaves other, similar RNAs untouched.
When tested in cancer cell lines, including HeLa and U2OS cells (which represent a hard-to-treat type of cancer), the treatment reduced TERRA levels and slowed cancer growth.
The discovery could lead to a new kind of medicine that fights cancer by going after RNA molecules — not just proteins, which most drugs target today.
“This is a new way of thinking about medicine,” said Benhamou. “Instead of focusing only on proteins, we’re now learning how to target the RNA that controls them. That could open the door to treating diseases we once thought were impossible to reach.”
Reference: “RNA G-Quadruplex RIBOTAC-Mediated Targeted Degradation of lncRNA TERRA” by Elias Khaskia, Dipak Dahatonde and Raphael I. Benhamou, 6 October 2025, Advanced Science.
DOI: 10.1002/advs.202512715
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2 Comments
There must be at least 30 of these ‘breakthroughs’ a year for years and years now. There is still no knockout cures for cancer but we are stuck with the largely radiation and chemo 1960s idea for it. These knockouts are never brought to fruition. I have been looking into these for over 10 years in peer review research papers that will FIND them and then will disband not going into finality. I call them ‘discovery mills’.
Cures are never brought forward but treatments are. There is a difference between a cure and a treatment. A few months back there was a new cancer treatment advertised on TV that increased life expectacy to 15 months from their competition doing 11 months. Four extra months! Not a cure but more a little longer life. Wow! Thank you! The time it took to find this life extensioner, we could have brought on one of these discovery mill finds that were disbaned prematurely.
But everyone still send your donations to cancer research that give ‘promoises’ but no action. These promising research projects need to be audited on why they were not brought ultimate forth. All these life extension and slow the progress down pill by pill treatments need to stop. CURES! we want cures.
The one thing cancer research has established over the last 40 years is that all forms of cancer emerge and grow through incredibly complex genetic, protein, and biochemical changes; some of them so similar to “normal” biological processes within healthy cells.
Finding suitable “targets” for intracellular interventions, that do not interfere with normal processes within healthy cells is a huge challenge. Each time scientists learn new details regarding what goes wrong in side a cancerous cell — and inside cancerous cells *only* brings humanity closer to defeating this notoriously difficult to treat disease.
This process highlights the fact that Science is not the bastion ot “revealed truth”, but rather, the product of a myriad of small discoveries that eventually form a cohesive picture of how a cell malfunctions and how to stop it from invading other cells.
The process takes a long time, because the details of cellular functioning sre immensely complicated, and we — as a species — have just begun to understand how some of these complex processes function ` ~and~ what interventions we xan create when those processes malfunction.
My grandmother died of ovarian cancer in the early 1970s. Today, a woman with exactly the same diagnosis had a much better chance of decades of survival.
We can’t “cure” type 1 diabetes ( …yet), but every diabetic is grateful for life and longevity sustaining treatments.
Scientific progress is incremental, and always will be.