"Smart" Cancer Cures
The future of medicine is very bright. With the new, rapidly growing field of nanotechnology, doctors will yield powerful, yet tiny weapons against common ailments and bizarre diseases. From the ability to “switch” off or on certain genes to curing disorders like diabetes and obesity, nanotechnology is the path medicine has chosen to go down. The most promising area of nanotechnology is the production of “Precision-guided Cancer cures.”
As we all know, modern cancer cures are very invasive and often harmful to healthy cells of the body. Chemotherapy, for instance, destroys targeted cancer cells along with nearby healthy cells. With nasty side effects of nausea, irritable rashes, and rapid hair loss, chemotherapy shrinks tumors but is not always favorable for the patients. Nanotechnology is the remedy for harmful caner treatments.
Robert Langer of MIT and Omid Farokhzad of Harvard University are forerunners in the field of adapting of nanotechnology to cancer research. By filling nanoshells, small hollow carbon polymer spheres, with very small doses of chemotherapy drugs, Langer and Farokhzad hope to deliver the drugs directly to the cancer cells themselves. To guide the chemo filled nanoshell directly to the cancer cells, small molecules called aptamers are attached to the surface of the shell. The aptamers are designed to only bind to certain proteins which are located on the surface of the cancerous tissue. This allows these “smart” shells, to target cancer and release its deadly cargo into the cancerous tissue. This kills cancerous cells and leaves the surrounding healthy cells unscathed.
Early in 2006, Langer and Farokhzad published preliminary data based on animal testing. The data showed that the nanoshells destroyed prostate cancer cells in mice. Although this data is very promising, a few more years of animal testing needs to occur before human testing takes place. Langer and Farokhzad hope to finish their research by 2014. If all goes well the fight against cancer will drastically change with this technology.
Work cited: “Precision-Guided Cancer Cures” by Gregory Mone and Elizabeth Svoboda, Popular Science, August 2006
Posted By:
JMcNeill
Update:
First I would like to apologize for taking so long to update this blog. As to answer some of your questions: Human studies are not yet underway, the use of nanotechnology is currently being tested on mice. Although the article stated that they had success targeting cancer cells with the new nanotechnology, it did not comment on the relative “controllability” of the nanoshells. As of now, no literature that I have found goes into much detail about the “controllability” or even the negative side effects of these new nanoshells. As more research and literature is published on this topic, I will try to update the blog.
Thanks for all the comments.
JMcNeill
posted by PWH @ 11:04 PM
13 comments
13 Comments:
There is no doubt that nanotechnology could yield some interesting results as it is so well studied and research on the subject has been going on for years. The possibility that nanotechnoly could be utilized to carry chemotherapy drugs directly to the affected cancer cells and that it could be designed to specifically target only those cells that have protein markers specific to cancer cells is an interesting idea. However, I am wondering, would it be wise to resort to something as minimalistic as nanotechnology? We would probably not be able to control its effects because of its sheer minimality. The technological devises in modern medical research are unable to control the proliferation and metastasis of cancer cells, how can we believe ourselves capable of controlling something much smaller in size than a cell?
--timoteo
The utilization of nanotechnology seems promising. You described these spheres as binding directly to cancerous cells. Which proteins/ carbohydrates on the cancer cell membrane do these spheres bind to? Is it possible that varying types of cancer express different surface proteins/ carbohydrates? If so, does a sphere need to be designed for each kind of cancer? Additionally, many different kinds of mutations (on different genes/alleles/ regulatory regions) may account for the onset of cancer. A major problem in cancer research has been identifying the many gene mutations/ regulatory deficeincies that account for cancer. It seems that thousands of these spheres (with specific membrane binding factors) would have to be designed. That is unless most cancerous cells express the same membrane markers (identifying them as cancer cells) . Do you think that perhaps focusing on correcting gene regulation (RNA/ protein expression) would be a more beneficial method for terminating cancer?
--AKE
I enjoyed your post. I am interested to know more about the side effects. What side effects were seen in the mice? Is it more localized? Is there any way to surround the tumor so the chemicals cannot leave it? You mentioned diabetes and obesity. Are treatments for these still being tested or have any nanotechnologies actually been used in humans yet?
Thanks,
Sarah Gulla
I can understand the concern of the last comment, but I feel as though chemotherapy is already dangerous in itself, and so the direct application of the treatment into the cancerous cells would eliminate some of the major pitfalls of previous methods of treatment. Also, this potential therapy is still largely under development and so criticism, although constructive, should be reserved until the process is further along. All in all, this post was very interesting. I think you summarized the topic very effective, and with a concise but thorough grasp.
Wow, its so unbelievable that within a few years cancer will no longer be an uncurable disease with the help of nanoshells. I think that it was very smart of Langer and his partner to come up with the idea of these nanoshells which are filled with small doses of chemotherapy drugs leaving no side effects, like any other chemotherapy drugs would. I definitely think that this is a very beneficial advantage in our society because there are many poeple who have some type of cancer and unfortunately die. But now thanks to these two people cancer will be a disease that no longer will it take the lives of many people in this world.
Janet Galvez
Very interesting article. I've heard about this treatment a while back and thought it was extremely interesting because once they are able to use it in humans cancer could be much easier to deal with. All in all the article was written very well and was interesting to read. Good Job and thanks for informing us on the new breakthroughs in cancer research.
Very interesting. It is amazing to see how to see how much the field of medicine has improved. If all goes well, nanotechnology could be a huge breakthrough. Not only can it help fight cancer, but it can also be used to fight other diseases and to repair other genetic defects as well. It seems like these nanoshells require a lot of precision in order to be effective. What would happen if the shells were to bind to other cells that it wasn't supposed to target?
Overall I thought it was a good post. It was concise and easy to read.
yz
I thought that this blog was very interesting. It is important to keep up to date with all the different developments being made. I am curious as to how the spheres find and bind to the cells. More specifics would be interesting in regards to which protiens, etc are involved. Also, I doubt that all cancer cells are the same, in which case are different versions being developed? Also, is it possible that the same kinds of complications that arise with antibiotics would occur in these individuals, causing growth of cancer that is resistant? I suppose similar complications are involved with chemotherapy as it is administered today.
The notion of ensuring that the chemotherapy drugs are only able to bind to the receptors on the cancer cells (while sparing the healthy tissue) is fascinating. How is it, I wonder, that the aptamers are able to locate the superficial proteins of the cancer cell? Are they designed to "fit" only with a certain receptor protein? If so, what is the technology that the scientists use to make this possible?
While this type of development is clearly fairly far in the future, as was mentioned in the original post, such research will most likely prove to be very pertinent as our generation ages, and as our children grow up. Hopefully cancer will not be nearly as ominous a disease to our children as it is to us.
tencati6
Exceptional post! I find the 'delivery ' system very interesting and I am also wondering about the 'life' of the cancer killing substance. Once the target cell is aquired and the 'chemo drug' unloaded what eventually happens to it? Does it degrade or remain in the body?...You don't need to answer these questions, I am so interested in this topic as a result of your post, I intend to look into it myself and maybe do a paper on this topic for another class! Thanks for posting this!
CatherineS
Course Participant
I enjoyed your blog very much. I'm interested knowing more about nanotechnology and how this can cure cancer and other diseases. I am glad to hear that there are many researches been going on to enhance our health and technology system to cure diseases that people suffer. Many known approaches to cure cancer have left many side affects which left many cancer patients weak, but if this nanotechnology really works without any side affects then this new technology can save many patients without any dangerous side effects. Are any of these nanotechnologies been used in humans? Can this device be used in curing other diseases? Such as?
kimji4
Not only cancer, but this kind of technology can be used to treat several different kinds of ailments; for example, i know that for Alzheimer's disease, the brain is very selective in allowing certain things to enter it with specialized canals and such. with this kind of technology, hopefully we can expand the field from just cancer to all different sorts of diseases in order to increase the quality of life for all different kinds of patients.
I think that you could write a little more on this blog. I find it interesting though, but you should bring more research that was done with the cancer. Where there any other side effects in the mouse? Would there be different side effects in humans than in mice?
Mike
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