Research led by Megan Matthews has solved a 70-year old medical mystery: how one of the oldest FDA-approved drugs for hypertension and preeclampsia, hydralazine, actually works. In the process, they revealed that it can also disarm one of the deadliest brain cancers. “Once prescribed as one of the first vasodilators for hypertension, hydralazine remains a first-line treatment for preeclampsia, a pregnancy-related hypertensive disorder that accounts for 5 to 15 percent of maternal deaths worldwide,” says Kyosuke Shishikura. “Yet for decades, no one knew exactly how the drug worked. Now that we understand its mechanism, we can start designing safer, more selective versions to target both vascular and cancer diseases.”

A previously unknown type of DNA damage in the mitochondria, the tiny power plants inside our cells, could shed light on how our bodies sense and respond to stress. The findings of the UC Riverside-led study have potential implications for a range of mitochondrial dysfunction-associated diseases, including cancer and diabetes.