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Researchers at the Institute of Advanced Study in Science and Technology (IASST), Guwahati, an autonomous institute under the Department of Science and Technology, and IIT-Guwahati have developed RK-251, an experimental cancer drug designed to stay largely inactive in healthy tissue and activate mainly inside cancer cells. It exploits the elevated reactive oxygen species (ROS) found in tumour cells: high ROS levels trigger the drug to release an anticancer compound, NBDHEX, that blocks proteins cancer cells use to survive. In preclinical tests, RK-251 showed strong activity against aggressive triple-negative breast cancer cells with much lower effect on healthy cells, and caused no obvious toxicity in zebrafish embryo studies. The findings, published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, are still at the preclinical stage and have not been tested in humans.