Remotely-Controlled Nanoparticles Can Deliver Drugs Direct Into Tumors

Filed in archive Cancer , Nanotechnology , Studies , Treatment on November 21, 2007

Remotely controlled nanoparticles - which when pulsed with an electromagnetic field, release drugs to attack tumors, have been developed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). scientists.

Such novel invention will in the future lead to improved diagnosis and targeted therapies for cancer.

In earlier work the team, led by Sangeeta Bhatia, M.D.,Ph.D., an associate professor in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences & Technology (HST) and in MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, developed injectable multi-functional nanoparticles designed to flow through the bloodstream, home to tumors and clump together. Clumped particles help clinicians visualize tumors through magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

With the ability to see the clumped particles, Bhatia's co-author in the current work, Geoff von Maltzahn, asked the next question: "Can we talk back to them?"

The answer is yes, the team found. The system that makes it possible consists of tiny particles (billionths of a meter in size) that are superparamagnetic, a property that causes them to give off heat when they are exposed to a magnetic field. Tethered to these particles are active molecules, such as therapeutic drugs.

Whenever I hear stories of cancer being resistant to treatment, I sort of lose hope that cancer will ever be totally treated. But then if I read of breakthrough especially in nanotechnology such as the above in cancer treatment, I still have enough faith left that even if not in the generation, cancer may still be successfully treated in time.

Find more details from EurekAlert.

[Photo Credit: nanoprism.net]