U.S. researchers say combining nanoparticles with a scorpion venom compound can cut the spread of cancerous brain tumor cells by 98 percent.

The University of Washington said the nanoparticles more than double theeffectiveness of chlorotoxin, a small peptide isolated from scorpionvenom.

"People talk about the treatment being more effective with nanoparticles but they don't know how much, maybe 5 percent or 10percent," Miqin Zhang, professor of materials science and engineering,said Friday in a release. "This was quite a surprise to us."

Researchers said adding nanoparticles can improve a therapy by increasing thelength of time the combination lasts in the body. Nanoparticles alsoboost effectiveness of treatment compounds because therapeuticmolecules tend to clump around each nanoparticle, the report said.