Metabolic double-play drug makes cancer burn sugar while starving fat

A UT Austin team reports XJ-4-85, a small molecule that drives cancer cells to burn more sugar while blocking fat metabolism, creating a metabolic trap that slowed melanoma tumors in mice and killed various human cancer cells in vitro; it introduces electrophile-drug conjugates (EDCs) to reach intracellular targets, but human testing is still years away and safety/resistance remain unknown.