Saturday, March 27, 2010
Monday, March 22, 2010
A Revolution in the Battle Against Cancer!!!!
Nanotech cancer treatment shown to work in humans
Nanotechnology has been generating a lot of excitement in the cancer research community. Scientists at institutions worldwide have gotten involved in looking at how tiny particles, specially designed to target cancer in the body and treat it, might work better than taking a regular drug. That's because targeted therapies would not harm healthy cells, reducing the toxic side effects seen in chemotherapy drugs.
After decades of work in animal models, there is now evidence that the approach works in humans. A paper published Sunday in the journal Nature shows that nanoparticles can successfully home to proteins associated with cancer progression, deliver medication, and turn off those proteins.
This is the first study to show that this particular method, using a mechanism called RNA interference, works in humans, said Gayle Woloschak, professor of radiology, and cell and molecular biology, at Northwestern University, who was not involved in the study.
But the study, led by Mark Davis at California Institute of Technology, is preliminary. It looked at three patients with melanoma, a form of skin cancer. Because only one of the patients consented to the biopsies due to all of the analysis, the researchers have conclusive evidence that the therapy – and not any previous treatment the patient may have had – was responsible for reducing the cancer-related protein in that patient, Davis said.
But the study showed targeting – that the nanoparticles got inside the tumor cells – in all three patients, Davis said. The more nanoparticles sent into the body, the more of these tiny structures get into the tumor cells, he said.
Although this is a small sample of participants, the study is still very important to show how the new technology works in humans, Woloschak said.
Particles used in this study were about 70 nanometers across, smaller than most viruses, Woloschak said. The therapy was injected directly into the patients' bloodstreams.
Researchers also demonstrated that a large number of different materials can be put together by using nanoparticles as scaffolds. This study used a tumor targeting agent and an anti-cancer therapy, but future possibilities include an imaging agent "so that a tumor can be observed as it is progressing through therapy," she said.
Results from the clinical trial associated with Davis' study will be presented at the meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in June.
Largely, the idea of targeted nanoparticles as cancer treatments has been shown to work in animals, but not humans. Last year CNNHealth reported on the buzz on "nanobees," which use this method, as well as other concepts in the works. Read more about that here: http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/08/18/nanotech.cancer.nano.tumors/index.html
~ Taken from Dr. Sanjay Gupta's Blog (CNN)
Nanotechnology has been generating a lot of excitement in the cancer research community. Scientists at institutions worldwide have gotten involved in looking at how tiny particles, specially designed to target cancer in the body and treat it, might work better than taking a regular drug. That's because targeted therapies would not harm healthy cells, reducing the toxic side effects seen in chemotherapy drugs.
After decades of work in animal models, there is now evidence that the approach works in humans. A paper published Sunday in the journal Nature shows that nanoparticles can successfully home to proteins associated with cancer progression, deliver medication, and turn off those proteins.
This is the first study to show that this particular method, using a mechanism called RNA interference, works in humans, said Gayle Woloschak, professor of radiology, and cell and molecular biology, at Northwestern University, who was not involved in the study.
But the study, led by Mark Davis at California Institute of Technology, is preliminary. It looked at three patients with melanoma, a form of skin cancer. Because only one of the patients consented to the biopsies due to all of the analysis, the researchers have conclusive evidence that the therapy – and not any previous treatment the patient may have had – was responsible for reducing the cancer-related protein in that patient, Davis said.
But the study showed targeting – that the nanoparticles got inside the tumor cells – in all three patients, Davis said. The more nanoparticles sent into the body, the more of these tiny structures get into the tumor cells, he said.
Although this is a small sample of participants, the study is still very important to show how the new technology works in humans, Woloschak said.
Particles used in this study were about 70 nanometers across, smaller than most viruses, Woloschak said. The therapy was injected directly into the patients' bloodstreams.
Researchers also demonstrated that a large number of different materials can be put together by using nanoparticles as scaffolds. This study used a tumor targeting agent and an anti-cancer therapy, but future possibilities include an imaging agent "so that a tumor can be observed as it is progressing through therapy," she said.
Results from the clinical trial associated with Davis' study will be presented at the meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in June.
Largely, the idea of targeted nanoparticles as cancer treatments has been shown to work in animals, but not humans. Last year CNNHealth reported on the buzz on "nanobees," which use this method, as well as other concepts in the works. Read more about that here: http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/08/18/nanotech.cancer.nano.tumors/index.html
~ Taken from Dr. Sanjay Gupta's Blog (CNN)
Nanotech ‘Trojan Horse’ Sneaks Drugs Into Cancer Cells!!
Good things come in small packages, as the saying goes, and nowhere is that more true than in nanotechnology.
Research in the field has recently led to several new strategies for employing nanotechnology in the fight against cancer, and — so far, at least — the results are promising.
Nanotechnology is proving to be a mighty weapon against cancer. Nanotech-based medicines are therapeutic because they can effectively exploit the unique mechanical properties of cancer lesions and treat the various forms of the disease locally, according to biomedical engineer Mauro Ferrari, who says, “we are on the brink of a new era in cancer treatment.”
‘Like a Trojan Horse’
One of the hardest parts of fighting cancer is that drugs often hit healthy cells at least as hard as the cancerous ones, causing patients to get sick. However, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Ovarian Cancer Institute are using nanotechnology to sneak cancer-fighting particles into just the cancer cells, leaving the healthy ones alone.
Their method uses hydrogels — tiny particles less than 100 nanometers in size — to insert a particular type of small interfering RNA(siRNA) into cancer cells. Once in the cell, the siRNA triggers the programmed cell death the body uses to kill mutated cells and helps traditional chemotherapy do its job.
“It’s like a Trojan horse,” explained L. Andrew Lyon, professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Georgia Tech. “We’ve decorated the surface of these hydrogels with a ligand that tricks the cancer cell into taking it up. Once inside, the particles have a slow release profile that leaks out the siRNA over a timescale of days, allowing it to have a therapeutic effect.”
A research paper describing the approach was published last month in BMC Cancer.
href="http://altfarm.mediaplex.com/ad/ck/9966-93028-7758-3?mpt=12665817171161&mpvc=http://www.ectnews.com/adsys/link/%3Fcreative%3d6455%26ENN_rnd%3d12665817171161%26ENN_target="> src=http://altfarm.mediaplex.com/ad/bn/9966-93028-7758-3?mpt=12665817171161
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Helping Chemotherapy Do Its Job
Many cancers are characterized by an overabundance of epidermal growth factor receptors, or EGFR, and a reduction in apoptosis, or programmed cell death.
Traditional chemotherapy agents often work by damaging cells to induce apoptosis, but the overabundance of EGFR makes many cancer cells resistant to such approaches, explained John McDonald, professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Biology and chief research scientist at the Ovarian Cancer Institute.
Small interfering RNA is good at shutting down EGFR production, but once inside the cell it has a limited life span. The hydrogel nanoparticles release only a small amount of siRNA at a time, ensuring that while some are out in the cancer cell doing their job, reinforcements are held safely inside the nanoparticle until it’s their turn.
“We have shown that we can target siRNA against EGFR specifically to ovarian cancer cells resulting in knock-down of EGFR expression and thereby making the cancer cells extremely sensitive to traditional chemotherapy treatments like taxanes,” McDonald told TechNewsWorld.
‘Package, Protect and Deliver’
In other words, when the researchers’ hydrogel “nanosponges” are used to deliver RNA that interferes with the cell’s ability to produce certain proteins, “the cell becomes much more susceptible to traditional chemotherapeutic drugs,” Lyon told TechNewsWorld. “In this way, we hope to increase the effectiveness of cancer treatments, perhaps even solving problems associated with drug-resistant cancers.”
Without nanotechnology, it is very difficult to get RNA into a cell in an active and functional form, Lyon pointed out.
“The nanosized hydrogels offer the ability to package, protect, and precisely deliver a very delicate cargo such as RNA,” he explained. “Additionally, the [approximately] 100 nm size of these nanogels is likely to permit good blood circulation and tumor localization.”
The researchers’ tests have already been shown to work in vitro, so tests in vivo are scheduled to begin soon.
Magnetic Nanoparticles
Researchers at Georgia Tech, including McDonald, have been using nanotechnology to attack cancer in another context as well.
In this case, it’s magnetic nanoparticles they’re using, and their approach targets the free-floating cancer cells that can cause ovarian cancer metastases.
“Most metastasis of ovarian cancer occurs by cancer cells falling off the primary tumor and spreading to the liver and other internal organs,” McDonald explained. “We hope that our magnetic nanoparticle system may be able to significantly reduce ovarian cancer metastasis.”
‘The Brink of a New Era’
In general, such nanotech-based medicines are therapeutic because they can effectively exploit the unique mechanical properties of cancer lesions and treat the various forms of the disease locally, according to Mauro Ferrari, professor and chairman of the department of nanomedicine and biomedical engineering at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.
Ferrari and his team have designed nanoparticles called “multi-stage vectors” that also offer great promise in targeting individual cancer cells.
“The level of specificity that can be achieved through the use of the conceptual model of cancer as a mechanical disease — and through the power of the mechanical engineering design process — will result in greater therapeutic efficacy with reduced side effects,” he explains in a forthcoming article, titled “Infernal Mechanism,” that will appear in the March 2010 edition of Mechanical Engineering.
In other words, he concluded, “we are on the brink of a new era in cancer treatment.”
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/Nanotech-Trojan-Horse-Sneaks-Drugs-Into-Cancer-Cells-69361.html
~ from the Scientific American Nanotechnology Blog
Research in the field has recently led to several new strategies for employing nanotechnology in the fight against cancer, and — so far, at least — the results are promising.
Nanotechnology is proving to be a mighty weapon against cancer. Nanotech-based medicines are therapeutic because they can effectively exploit the unique mechanical properties of cancer lesions and treat the various forms of the disease locally, according to biomedical engineer Mauro Ferrari, who says, “we are on the brink of a new era in cancer treatment.”
‘Like a Trojan Horse’
One of the hardest parts of fighting cancer is that drugs often hit healthy cells at least as hard as the cancerous ones, causing patients to get sick. However, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Ovarian Cancer Institute are using nanotechnology to sneak cancer-fighting particles into just the cancer cells, leaving the healthy ones alone.
Their method uses hydrogels — tiny particles less than 100 nanometers in size — to insert a particular type of small interfering RNA(siRNA) into cancer cells. Once in the cell, the siRNA triggers the programmed cell death the body uses to kill mutated cells and helps traditional chemotherapy do its job.
“It’s like a Trojan horse,” explained L. Andrew Lyon, professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Georgia Tech. “We’ve decorated the surface of these hydrogels with a ligand that tricks the cancer cell into taking it up. Once inside, the particles have a slow release profile that leaks out the siRNA over a timescale of days, allowing it to have a therapeutic effect.”
A research paper describing the approach was published last month in BMC Cancer.
href="http://altfarm.mediaplex.com/ad/ck/9966-93028-7758-3?mpt=12665817171161&mpvc=http://www.ectnews.com/adsys/link/%3Fcreative%3d6455%26ENN_rnd%3d12665817171161%26ENN_target="> src=http://altfarm.mediaplex.com/ad/bn/9966-93028-7758-3?mpt=12665817171161
alt="Click Here" border="0" />
Helping Chemotherapy Do Its Job
Many cancers are characterized by an overabundance of epidermal growth factor receptors, or EGFR, and a reduction in apoptosis, or programmed cell death.
Traditional chemotherapy agents often work by damaging cells to induce apoptosis, but the overabundance of EGFR makes many cancer cells resistant to such approaches, explained John McDonald, professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Biology and chief research scientist at the Ovarian Cancer Institute.
Small interfering RNA is good at shutting down EGFR production, but once inside the cell it has a limited life span. The hydrogel nanoparticles release only a small amount of siRNA at a time, ensuring that while some are out in the cancer cell doing their job, reinforcements are held safely inside the nanoparticle until it’s their turn.
“We have shown that we can target siRNA against EGFR specifically to ovarian cancer cells resulting in knock-down of EGFR expression and thereby making the cancer cells extremely sensitive to traditional chemotherapy treatments like taxanes,” McDonald told TechNewsWorld.
‘Package, Protect and Deliver’
In other words, when the researchers’ hydrogel “nanosponges” are used to deliver RNA that interferes with the cell’s ability to produce certain proteins, “the cell becomes much more susceptible to traditional chemotherapeutic drugs,” Lyon told TechNewsWorld. “In this way, we hope to increase the effectiveness of cancer treatments, perhaps even solving problems associated with drug-resistant cancers.”
Without nanotechnology, it is very difficult to get RNA into a cell in an active and functional form, Lyon pointed out.
“The nanosized hydrogels offer the ability to package, protect, and precisely deliver a very delicate cargo such as RNA,” he explained. “Additionally, the [approximately] 100 nm size of these nanogels is likely to permit good blood circulation and tumor localization.”
The researchers’ tests have already been shown to work in vitro, so tests in vivo are scheduled to begin soon.
Magnetic Nanoparticles
Researchers at Georgia Tech, including McDonald, have been using nanotechnology to attack cancer in another context as well.
In this case, it’s magnetic nanoparticles they’re using, and their approach targets the free-floating cancer cells that can cause ovarian cancer metastases.
“Most metastasis of ovarian cancer occurs by cancer cells falling off the primary tumor and spreading to the liver and other internal organs,” McDonald explained. “We hope that our magnetic nanoparticle system may be able to significantly reduce ovarian cancer metastasis.”
‘The Brink of a New Era’
In general, such nanotech-based medicines are therapeutic because they can effectively exploit the unique mechanical properties of cancer lesions and treat the various forms of the disease locally, according to Mauro Ferrari, professor and chairman of the department of nanomedicine and biomedical engineering at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.
Ferrari and his team have designed nanoparticles called “multi-stage vectors” that also offer great promise in targeting individual cancer cells.
“The level of specificity that can be achieved through the use of the conceptual model of cancer as a mechanical disease — and through the power of the mechanical engineering design process — will result in greater therapeutic efficacy with reduced side effects,” he explains in a forthcoming article, titled “Infernal Mechanism,” that will appear in the March 2010 edition of Mechanical Engineering.
In other words, he concluded, “we are on the brink of a new era in cancer treatment.”
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/Nanotech-Trojan-Horse-Sneaks-Drugs-Into-Cancer-Cells-69361.html
~ from the Scientific American Nanotechnology Blog
Welcome
Welcome to the Nanotechnology in Medicine Blog!
This blog has been made to inform you about the latest developments in nanotechnology and medicine. Come here regularly to remain up-to-date on a technology that has the power to sweep medicine off it's feet with the word "GO!!!"!!!.
I'll update weekly at the very least so mark the dates on your calender!
I hope you find something useful in this site. Don't hesitate to send me comments, questions, reuqests, ideas and suggestions about the blog at dilonjsd@hotmail.com .
Thank you once again and remember: keep on coming!!
This blog has been made to inform you about the latest developments in nanotechnology and medicine. Come here regularly to remain up-to-date on a technology that has the power to sweep medicine off it's feet with the word "GO!!!"!!!.
I'll update weekly at the very least so mark the dates on your calender!
I hope you find something useful in this site. Don't hesitate to send me comments, questions, reuqests, ideas and suggestions about the blog at dilonjsd@hotmail.com .
Thank you once again and remember: keep on coming!!
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