A team of local scientists has discovered an anti-cancer agent that causes carcinogens to self-destruct.

Led by Professor Shin Deuk-yong of Dankook University, the team on Tuesday said a cancer cell without a cancer-suppressing gene died after an injection of pectenotoxin-2 (PTX-2), a new actin impediment extracted from a sea sponge.

In an experiment on mice, 70 percent of cancer cells died 72 hours after a PTX-2 injection with no noticeable side effects.

Without a cancer-suppressing gene, 60 percent of cancer cells die, and Shin said that if PTX-2 is made into a drug, it could treat a variety of cancers.

His research paper has appeared in Oncogene, a leading cancer journal abroad, and a British pharmaceutical online daily.