The agony and the ecstasy

Scientists have developed a modified form of ecstasy that can kill blood cancer cells in a test tube. It's really fascinating chemistry, but please note the italics and do not try this at home, kids.

Maggie Koerth-Baker is the science editor at BoingBoing.net. She writes a monthly column for The New York Times Magazine and is the author of Before the Lights Go Out, a book about electricity, infrastructure, and the future of energy. You can find Maggie on Twitter and Facebook.

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MORE: experiment • new research • Science • yesbut

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Brainspore

Have you ever witnessed anyone die of leukemia during a rave? SCIENCE!
bbonyx

I like that when I look at the stock pics accompanying articles such as this I can honestly think “I remember those… I remember those… oooh, those were good!” etc. etc. Heh.

And then I often think “Damn, I wish the hand holding all of that were mine”. Good times. Really good times.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1045256144 Charles Milner

Bleach will also kill cancer cells in a test tube. And everything else.
GreenJello

If it’s modified, it’s not really ecstasy is it?
- MDwebguy
  
  Yeah, it’s really more of a bright and shiny happiness.
Lobster

Been keeping an eye on this since I could really use a little right about now.

Also looking forward to the sh*tstorm when they try to legalize it for medical use.
- http://www.alwayssababa.com/ lishevita
  
  Actually, MDMA is already being used for medical use in some countries, and is in use in clinical trials here in the US. So, I suspect that the storm here in the US will be less brown than you expect.
ahmacrom

‘GULP’ too late, hey it’s for SCIENCE..
Cocomaan

MDMA is pretty harmless. Certainly less dangerous than Tylenol.
- dculberson
  
  Almost certainly less toxic, but not necessarily less dangerous. It is a psychoactive drug and has serious misuse potential. Most users don’t appreciate just how powerful it is.
Alvis

What a tease. All I wanted from that article was the name of the new chemical.
http://www.mrericsir.com MrEricSir

Well the first step is to remove all the cancer cells from your body and put them in a test tube.
mccrum

TL; DR, Cancer is cured! Yay!
http://profiles.google.com/superkuh Kuh Superkuh

Nope. Just because they started with an MDMA structure doesn’t mean it’s ‘modified ecstasy’. This headline is, perhaps unintentional, propoganda. They didn’t just stick in a halogen or switch a methyl to an ethyl, they replaced the alpha-site methyl (the meth in methylamphetamine) with a freakin’ huge phenyl group! But that didn’t work, so they added even bulkier substituants like 1- and 2-naphthyl and para-biphenyl at the alpha position.

Some may not understand this jargon so I’ll put it this way: there is as much or more there added on then there was to start in the entire molecule.

Read for yourself over at: http://www.springerlink.com/content/384k8r14u2kvhv1h/ “Enhancing the anti-lymphoma potential of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (‘ecstasy’) through iterative chemical redesign: mechanisms and pathways to cell death”
http://www.appliedesoterics.com bfarn

“…chemically re-engineered ecstasy by taking some atoms
away and putting new ones in their place.”

Hoooo-DANG. What is this, Ranger Rick?