San Antonio researchers check synthetic version of capsaicin — the heat in chile peppers — for cancer-killing effects

But the properties of capsaicin could have a deeper significance. The relationship between pain and capsazepine, a synthetic version of the naturally occurring compound, was what led San Antonio researchers to study whether it could be used to combat oral and other types of cancer.

Researchers at UT Health San Antonio, in collaboration with the University of Texas at San Antonio, have developed a new class of drugs called capsazepine analogs, which bear structural similarities to capsaicin. In preclinical testing on mice, the drugs have shown promise in dramatically reducing the size of tumors.