Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Nivashini on December 30, 2008 at 12:23pm

This is an article from www.nanoparticle.org which I found interesting



ScienceDaily (Sep. 17, 2008) — Nanoparticles filled with a drug that targets two genes that trigger melanoma could offer a potential cure for this deadly disease, according to cancer researchers. The treatment, administered through an ultrasound device, demonstrates a safer and more effective way of targeting cancer-causing genes in cancer cells without harming normal tissue.

"It is a very selective and targeted approach," said Gavin Robertson, associate professor of pharmacology, pathology and dermatology, Penn State College of Medicine. "And unlike most other cancer drugs that inadvertently affect a bunch of proteins, we are able to knock out single genes."

The Penn State researchers speculated that "silencing RNA" (siRNA) -- strands of RNA molecules that knock out specific genes -- could turn off the two cancer-causing genes and potentially treat the deadly disease more effectively.

"siRNA checks the expression of the two genes, which then lowers the abnormal levels of the cancer causing proteins in cells," explained Robertson, who is lead author of the paper appearing in the Sept. 15 issue of the journal Cancer Research.

In recent years, researchers have zeroed in on two key genes -- B-Raf and Akt3 -- that cause melanoma. B-Raf, the most frequently mutated gene in melanoma, produces the mutant protein, B-Raf, which helps mole cells survive and grow but does not form melanomas on its own.

Robertson and colleagues previously found that a protein called Akt3 regulates the activity of the mutated B-Raf, which aids the development of melanoma.

The drug in this study specifically targets Akt3 and the mutant B-Raf and does therefore not affect normal cells, added Robertson, who is also director of the Foreman Foundation Melanoma Therapeutics Program at the Penn State College of Medicine Cancer Institute.

However, while knocking out specific genes may seem like a straightforward task, delivering the siRNA drug to cancerous cells is another story, because protective layers in the skin not only keep drugs out, but chemicals in the skin quickly degrade the siRNA.

To clear these two hurdles, Robertson and his team engineered hollow nano-sized particles -- nanoliposomes -- from globes of fatty acids into which they packed the siRNA. Next, the researchers used a portable ultrasound device to temporarily create microscopic holes in the surface of the skin, allowing the drug-filled particles to leak into tumor cells beneath.

"Think of it as tiny basketballs that each protect the siRNA inside from getting degraded by the skin," explained Robertson. "These basketballs fall through the holes created by the ultrasound and are taken up by the tumor cells, thereby delivering the siRNA drug into the tumor cells."

When the researchers exposed lab-generated skin -- made from human connective tissue -- containing early cancerous lesions to the treatment 10 days after the skin was created, the siRNA reduced the ability of cells containing the mutant B-Raf to multiply by nearly 60 to 70 percent, and more than halved the size of lesions after three weeks.

"This is essentially human skin with human melanoma cells, which provides an accurate picture of how the drug is acting," said Robertson.

Mice with melanoma that underwent the same treatment had their tumors shrink by nearly 30 percent when only the mutant B-Raf was targeted. There was no difference in the development of melanoma when the Akt3 gene alone was targeted, though existing tumors shrank by about 10 to 15 percent in two weeks.

However, when the researchers targeted both the Akt3 and the mutant B-Raf at the same time, they found that tumors in the mice shrank about 60 to 70 percent more than when either gene was targeted alone.

"If you knock down each of these two genes separately, you are able to reduce tumor development somewhat," Robertson said. "But knocking them down together leads to synergistic reduction of tumor development."

While human clinical trials could be years away, Robertson says the findings show the promise of personalized medicine, where patients could receive treatments designed to specifically target the errant genes or proteins for their disease.

"The problem with this cancer, like most cancers, is that if you target one protein, the cells quickly find a way around it," explained Robertson. "Most chemotherapies are ineffective because patients initially respond but then when the tumor reoccurs, the cancer does not respond at all."

In the future, Robertson believes physicians could identify three or four targets in a patient, which could be treated sequentially or in combination for a greater health benefit.

Other researchers on the paper include Melissa A. Tran, graduate student, Raghavendra Gowda, postdoctoral fellow, Arati Sharma, assistant professor, and Mark Kester, professor, all in the Department of Pharmacology; James Adair, professor of materials science and engineering; E. J. Park, graduate student, and Nadine Barrie Smith, associate professor of bioengineering, all at Penn State.

The American Cancer Society, The Foreman Foundation for Melanoma Research, and the Department of Defense Technologies for Metabolic Monitoring funded this work.

Attachments:

• cancer.htm, 112 KB

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by RajaKumar.G on February 18, 2010 at 9:51am

hello
now only i read ur article , its very intersting.. ru working realted with cancer ah? if yes means, may i knw the tissue culturee technique or cell line technique? or where they give training regarding this

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Antonietta Gatti on December 30, 2008 at 2:43pm

Dear All,

My personal opinion is that hardly we will find a treatment for cancer, if we do not understand its ethiology. First, we need to answer the following question: What are the pathogens that can have the chance to interact directly with DNA? We know that there are some cancerogenic molecules and radioactive agents that can cause cancer. But there are also particles like asbestos that can induce pleural mesothelioma if inhaled. If we do not understand the cancerogenic mechanism, we cannot find the right therapy and we cannot make prevention.
It my personal opinion that nanoparticles can interact directly with cells and cell components for their tiny size and induce intracellular and nuclear changes. So, from my point of view it is not safe to inject not biodegradable nanoparticles in human bodies (even if in cancerogenic tissue), if there is no certainty to be able to eliminate them from the body. They represent foreign bodies and the body, the tissue, the cell react always against their presence, immediately or in a delayed time. In my capacity of Coordinator of the European Project called DIPNA (Nanotoxicity) I am evaluating the type of interaction that inorganic nanoparticle create inside the cells. For this knowledge I am sure that a not wise use of these nanoparticles can show side effects in humans and in the environment. We had a similar situation when the Curies discovered the radioactive materials. Only 40 years later, we understood the lethal risks of the radiations.
To answer to Mr Satish, I suggest him to analyze his friend's pacreatic samples ( I can analyze them by electron scanning microscopy) and verify if some submichronic foreign bodies are present in the tissue. The chemical composition of them (detect by means of an energy dispersive spectroscopy) can give him the chemical composition of the debris and to understand type of exposure that his friend .
If you need more information you can write me directly .(Nanopathology: the health risk of nanoparticles. (www.nanopathology.it; www.worldscibooks.com/nanosci/v001.html))

Antonietta Gatti. University of Modena
antonietta.gatti@unimore.it

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Sivasayanth on December 30, 2008 at 2:50pm

It is sound interesting and well needed topic. I'm very sad about Prof Randy Pausch dead, the professor at Carnegie Mellon University who inspired countless students in the classroom and others worldwide through his highly acclaimed last lecture, has died of complications from pancreatic cancer. He was 47.

from then only i studied (theoretically) some proposal treatments that are how to catch the cancer molecule from our body ( identification of cancer molecule very precision way) and destroy the cancer molecule.

actually I'm student for material Science and Engineering and in the beginner position for medical field too.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Arturo E Cadena on December 30, 2008 at 7:48pm

Hello:

I am really interested in this topic. I think that the nanorobotics is a best treatmnet for combat the "Cancer".

Sincerely,
Arturo E Cadena Jr.
Unmanned Vehicle Researcher.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Steffen B. Petersen on December 31, 2008 at 8:52am

Hi Olga,

We are very interested in cancer - but we are keenly aware that it is such a vast area of research, that just reading the available literature on the general topic is a lifelong task. So we decided to focus on the skills that we feel we master well - which happens to be the effects of light on biological material. We have investigated how UV light is able to modify the chemical structure of proteins - if properly used it opens so-called disulphide bridges. In the open state, other molecules may block these bonds, and prevent the molecules from returning to the native state again. This way we can immobilize proteins onto surfaces with a spatial precision of a few microns. We term the effect LAPI = Light assisted protein immobilization. We have many papers documenting this effect. From a nano perspective we are able to open a 2Å bond by carefully illuminating the protein with a particular wave length for a particular duration. We linked up with a cancer biology group, and illuminated various skin cancer cell lines, and investigated the effect. The first observation was that we induce apoptosis (cell death) in these cells - and that we know exactly why this process was initiated. Interestingly the light modifies the receptor that is also the target for many cancer chemotrapeutic approaches.

Our message is that LAPI appear to be a new, and potentially usefull approach to interfering with the biochemistry growth and proliferation of cancer cells. We are considering several futuristic concepts on how to combine the light approach with smart application of nano particles coated with proteins

We invite anybody with an interest in this approach to contact us at sp@nano.aau.dk

please check out these pages on our web-site :
http://www.nanobio.dk/research.asp?mid=48&sid=148
http://www.nanobio.dk/showms.asp?mid=55&sid=247
http://www.nanobio.dk/research.asp?mid=48

A happy new year to all who reads this

Steffen B. Petersen

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by K. MOHAN on December 31, 2008 at 2:58pm

This is basically a nano-science and research community. However i wish to pont out here that Linus Pauling Institute is engaged in the research of tea and vegetable source in treatment of cancer. There are several herbals which are said to have curative properties against cancer.Nowdays pressed for time. anyway put the names of some herbals if some one shows the interest in knowing here.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by TINC on January 3, 2009 at 11:19am

Two new forum topics related to this:

Prevention is better than cure-boosting one's immune system is to w... by K. MOHAN

Cancer and nanotechnology by Asher Cron

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by TINC on February 3, 2009 at 7:23pm

‘Nanotechnology can cure cancer’

http://www.nanopaprika.eu/profiles/blogs/nanotechnology-can-cure-ca...

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by TINC on May 9, 2009 at 11:14am

Some links to this topic:

Nanotechnology kills cancer cells

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4734507.stm

---

Nanotechnology and Cancer

http://cancerweb.ncl.ac.uk/cancernet/400388.html

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by sudania2000 on May 24, 2009 at 8:49am

Many thanks for the topic, I'm from Sudan this is becoming a serious problem in my country
is there any relation to the heavy use of pesticides and the other chemicals? poor comunities
with no or poor health care are the most affecting people, the medicines are so expencive
I hope we can do somthing in this NanoS.Community to help poor ones
Regards
Sudania

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by TINC on July 23, 2009 at 7:56pm

• ▶ Reply

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• 6
• Next ›
• Page