When in business school, I did a summer internship that involved building a business plan for a nanoparticle cancer treatment.
The idea was to take a nanoparticle and attach it to a targeting protein. The combined particles would then be released into the bloodstream where they would attach to cancer cells. In our case, we used laser light to heat the particles and kill the cancer cells without affecting the other cells but a number of cancer-fighting treatments could be used.
At the time, this was a cool idea but pie-in-the-sky. We saw a future for the technology but most people we spoke with were more likely to smirk.
Our team broke up and moved on to better things but now a year later I am starting to have sightings. This month there have been two articles on different applications of this nanoparticle cancer fighting idea.
Even though I will never do it, this is a very cool idea and I hope it leads to some amazing medical treatments.
Hope over tumour fighting therapy The technique could stop vital nutrients reaching tumours
Scientists believe they have found a way to block the supply of nutrients to cancer tumours.
Tuesday, 9 January 2007
BBC UK
A potentially powerful function of nanoparticles is the ability to home in on particular targets inside the body.
While various nanoparticles have been designed to target tumours, the efficiency is relatively low.
The researchers developed a technique for amplifying this homing ability by designing a multifunctional nanoparticle that binds to a protein structure found only in tumours and associated blood vessels.
To test the particles' homing ability, the researchers injected the nanoparticles into mice and found that the particles bound only to tumour vessels.
This group is the most advanced and most likely to succeed although it may take years.
Remotely Activated Nanoparticles Destroy Cancer
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
Targeted nanotech-based treatments will enter clinical trials in 2007.
The first in a new generation of nanotechnology-based cancer treatments will likely begin clinical trials in 2007, and if the promise of animal trials carries through to human trials, these treatments will transform cancer therapy. By replacing surgery and conventional chemotherapy with noninvasive treatments targeted at cancerous tumors, this nanotech approach could reduce or eliminate side effects by avoiding damage to healthy tissue. It could also make it possible to destroy tumors that are inoperable or won't respond to current treatment.
One of these new approaches places gold-coated nanoparticles, called nanoshells, inside tumors and then heats them with infrared light until the cancer cells die. Because the nanoparticles also scatter light, they could be used to image tumors as well. Mauro Ferrari, a leader in the field of nanomedicine and professor of bioengineering at the University of Texas Health Science Center, says this is "very exciting" technology.
