(Nanowerk News) A world-renowned medical researcher discusses the key role that nanotechnology has begun to play in the detection and treatment of cancer in an article that will appear in the March 2010 edition of Mechanical Engineering magazine.
Mauro Ferrari, Ph.D., explains how advanced nanotech-based therapeutic agents possess characteristics that can effectively exploit the unique mechanical properties of cancer lesions and treat the various forms of the disease locally.
According to Ferrari, professor and chairman of the Department of Nanomedicine and Biomedical Engineering at The University of Texas Health Science Center, some engineered nano-particles have demonstrated the capability to deliver drugs only to areas affected by disease, in the process protecting healthy cells and reducing debilitating side effects.
Researchers at MIT
are using nanoparticles and infrared light as part of a project to
develop a more accurate method of delivering multiple drugs to patients
battling diseases such as cancer and AIDS.
The researchers have created differently shaped nanoparticles that
are each designed to release their medicinal payloads at different
times. According to MIT, the new drug-delivery system is externally controlled and could be used to provide patients with up to three or four drugs at a time.
"With a lot of diseases, especially cancer and AIDS, you get a
synergistic effect with more than one drug," Kimberly Hamad-Schifferli,
an assistant professor of biological and mechanical engineering at MIT,
said in a statement.
MIT noted in an announcement about the research effort that doctors
already use drug-delivery devices but that the existing ones generally
can release only two drugs at a time. And the timing of the medicine's
release typically has to be built into the delivery device itself, as
opposed to being controlled by doctors from outside of a patient's
body, according to MIT.
For the new delivery system, the MIT researchers are using gold
nanoparticles in conjunction with infrared lights. When the particles
are exposed to the lights, they dissolve and release their drug
payloads. Nanoparticles with different shapes respond to different
infrared wavelengths, so doctors should be able to release drugs at
desired intervals by adjusting the wavelengths, said Andy Wijaya, an
MIT graduate student who is working on the project.
Using nanotechnology to fight cancer is an idea that has been growing. Earlier this month, for example, researchers at Stanford University
reported that by using the same type of nanotechnology that enables
hard drives to read and write data, they have developed a system that
should be able to detect cancer in the human body.
Also this month, scientists at MIT said they had developed
nanotechnology-based sensors that can be placed inside living cells to
determine whether chemotherapy drugs are reaching their targets
or attacking healthy cells. The sensors, which can detect chemotherapy
drugs as well as toxins and free radicals, are carbon nanotubes that
the scientists have wrapped in DNA so they can be safely injected into
living tissue, according to a release from the university.
Another group of Stanford researchers announced in August that they
had found a way to use nanotechnology to aim chemotherapy drugs only at cancer cells,
keeping healthy tissue in surrounding cells safe from the toxic effects
of chemo treatments. The new methodology relies on single-walled carbon
nanotubes to function as targeted delivery vehicles.
And in July, scientists at the University of California, San Diego, said they had discovered a way to use nanotechnology-based "smart bombs"
to streamline lower doses of chemotherapy to cancerous tumors, thereby
cutting down on a cancer's ability to spread through the body.
KOCHI:
The latest research findings dealing with the potential risks of
manufactured nanomaterials are clear indication that the field of
nanotoxicology is gaining momentum.While there is no coherent
international approach for determining the risks posed by
nanotechnology materials, the individual research groups forging ahead
with the highly specific toxicology studies.The ongoing second
international conference in the Cochin Nano-2009 found several
participants presenting newer findings, each emphasising on `stability
and longevity’ of the products.But, these very factors could contribute to the toxic effect on human body, say experts.``We did a study on gold and silver and found that gold particles were not so toxic as silver nanoparticles.These
are pretty toxic when used for long duration,’’ said Prof Suresh
Valiyaveetil, Department of Chemistry, National University of Singapore.his
research team at the Materials Research Lab, NUS, found that silver
nanoparticles present in wound dressing cause deformities in living
tissues.human cells and zebrafish are shown to develop toxicity
when exposed to high concentration of silver nanoparticles. Measuring
less than 30 nanometers in size, these nanoparticles can travel through
air and water.They are present in common household products such as air or water filtration membranes, cosmetics and detergents.This
means that they are able to enter the environment and eventually into
the cellular systems of human beings and animals. What happens when
these nanoparticles get into a cell? The team exposed the human brain
cells and fibroblast cells to silver nanoparticles and found presence
of toxicity. The investigation progressed from a cell to a full living
system.In another collaboration with Prof Gong Zhiyuan,
Department of Biological Sciences, researchers fed silver nanoparticles
into the medium containing zebrafish eggs to observe the changes in its
body."Zebrafish was chosen as it is transparent, allowing
researchers to observe clearly the changes in its blood circulatory
system and organs. Another advantage is that the development of egg to
fish takes only three days,’’ he said.On monitoring, they found
that some embryos had no eyes while some had serious deformities. And
some died when the concentration of silver nanoparticles was increased.
"We need not get alarmed.But, we need to be alert because silver nanoparticles are used in wound dressings, water filters etc.Toxicity
depends on how much silver nanoparticles you feed into the cell. If it
is a small amount, it doesn’t show any toxicity. But, if the
concentration increases, the toxicity increases,’’ he said.however, he is concentrating more on the exposure factor which he says needn’t be studied in full length.The
workers in the industry who makes such products need to be studied. "We
are concentrating on it. No matter how good or bad the news is,’’ he
said.
December 2008
- Targeted Nanoparticles Deliver Therapeutic DNA to Cancer Cells
Given that cancer is a disease caused by gene mutations, cancer researchers have been striving to develop gene therapies aimed at correcting these mutations. However, these efforts have been hobbled by the difficulty in safely and efficiently delivering anticancer genes to tumors. Nanoparticles, however, may solve these delivery issues, and two recently published studies, using two different types of nanoparticles, lend credence to that hypothesis.
Miqin Zhang, Ph.D., PI of the Nanotechnology Platform for Pediatric Brain Cancer Imaging and Therapy project at the University of Washington in Seattle, led a group of researchers that developed a targeted polymer nanoparticle that efficiently delivered a model gene into two types of cancer cells. More importantly, the gene functions properly once it enters the targeted cells. In the second study, Mansoor Amiji, Ph.D., PI of the Nanotherapeutic Strategy for Multidrug Resistant Tumors Platform Partnership at Northeastern University, and doctoral student Padmaja Magadala, M.S., used gelatin-based nanoparticles and a different targeting agent to efficiently deliver the same model gene to human pancreatic tumor cells. As in the first study, the delivered gene functioned properly inside the tumor cells. More...
Magnetic Nanotags Allow Sensitive Detection of Cancer Biomarkers
The detection of cancer-associated proteins, or biomarkers, in blood samples is a potentially powerful tool for early diagnosis of cancer and monitoring of cancer treatment. A team led by researchers at Stanford University and the University of California, Santa Cruz, has developed a compact prototype detector that uses magnetic nanotechnology to spot cancer-associated proteins in a human blood serum sample, with much higher sensitivity than current detectors.
In addition to its high sensitivity, the new detector can monitor multiple biomarkers simultaneously. “This ‘multiplex’ capability is important because the use of multiple biomarkers is likely to provide greater accuracy and reliability than single biomarkers for cancer diagnosis and other potential applications,” said Nader Pourmand, Ph.D., one of three principal investigators (PIs) who directed this work. The researchers describe their results in a paper published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
“With current detectors, you can detect only one protein at a time,” Dr. Pourmand said. “Instead of the standard fluorescent tags, we used nanosize magnetic beads as tags and were able to detect target molecules with tens to hundreds of times greater sensitivity than standard techniques.”
By Michael J. Sailor1, Ji-Ho Park1, Sangeeta N. Bhatia2, Geoffrey von Maltzahn2, and Erkki Ruoslahti1
Collaborating Centers:
1Center of Nanotechnology for Treatment, Understanding, and Monitoring of Cancer (NANO-TUMOR)
2MIT-Harvard Center of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence
(CMIR-CCNE)
A key nanotechnology objective is to build molecular devices that surpass the function of single molecules.Ultimately
these enhanced nanodevices would provide modern medicine with
integrated therapeutic and diagnostic function within a single in vivo delivery device.
Until recently, multi-functional hybrid nanosystems have been studied in vitro, but there have been specific obstacles in moving to animal studies.The poor stability of nanodevices led to toxicity issues and poor targeting.The
natural clearing process of the animal’s circulation system limited the
nanodevice circulation time and subsequent effectiveness.The
recent development of “nano mother ships” that detect and treat cancer
cells in a specific manner utilizes unique hybrid nanodevices.Conceptually
the hull is composed of modified lipids and cancer related targeting
molecules which provide a stable vehicle for accurate delivery of a
multifunctional payload.The payload provides
one or more unique methods of imaging the tumor (e.g. quantum dots and
magnetic iron oxide particles) and a toxic drug designed to destroy the
tumor in vivo with minimal effect on the patient (Figure 1, Drawing on Right).» Continue reading “Nano Mother Ships Designed to Detect and Treat Cancer”
NanoTechnology 
US Senator Dianne Feinstein
NanoTumor Center Overview