Using magnetically controlled nanoparticles to force tumour cells to ‘self-destruct’ sounds like science fiction, but could be a future part of cancer treatment, according to research from Lund University in Sweden.
WATCH: How rotating nanoparticles target cancer cells
“The clever thing about the technique is that we can target selected cells without harming surrounding tissue. There are many ways to kill cells, but this method is contained and remote-controlled”, said Professor Erik Renström.
The point of the new technique is that it is much more targeted than trying to kill cancer cells with techniques such as chemotherapy.
“Chemotherapy can also affect healthy cells in the body, and it therefore has serious side-effects. Radiotherapy can also affect healthy tissue around the tumour.
“Our technique, on the other hand, is able to attack only the tumour cells”, said Enming Zhang, one of the first authors of the study.
In brief, the technique involves getting the nanoparticles into a tumour cell, where they bind to lysosomes, the units in the cell that perform ‘cleaning patrols’. The lysosomes have the ability to break down foreign substances that have entered a cell. They can also break down the entire cell through a process known as ‘controlled cell death’, a type of destruction where damaged cells dissolve themselves.
The researchers have used nanoparticles of iron oxide that have been treated with a special form of magnetism. Once the particles are inside the cancer cells, the cells are exposed to a magnetic field, and the nanoparticles begin to rotate in a way that causes the lysosomes to start destroying the cells.
The research group at Lund University is not the first to try and treat cancer using supermagnetic nanoparticles. However, previous attempts have focused on using the magnetic field to create heat that kills the cancer cells. The problem with this is that the heat can cause inflammation that risks harming surrounding, healthy tissue. The new method, on the other hand, in which the rotation of the magnetic nanoparticles can be controlled, only affects the tumour cells that the nanoparticles have entered.
The new technique is primarily intended for cancer treatment, but according to Erik Renström and his colleague Enming Zhang there may be other areas of application. One example is autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes, in which the immune system attacks the body’s own insulin production.
The ‘superparamagnetic nanoparticles’ have attracted a lot of interest from academia and industry in recent years. They are being tested in research on new diagnostic laboratory tests, new methods of viewing phenomena in living tissue, and new drugs.
The researchers at Lund University have a patent pending for their technique with the rotating nanoparticles. However, a lot of work remains before it can be transferred from the laboratory to clinical trials on patients.
The Latest on: Magnetically controlled nanoparticles
[google_news title=”” keyword=”Magnetically controlled nanoparticles” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
via Google News
The Latest on: Magnetically controlled nanoparticles
- Study shows optical excitation of hot carriers enables ultrafast dynamic control of nanoscale plasmonson May 17, 2024 at 10:09 am
Photonic computing, storage, and communication are the foundation for future photonic chips and all-optical neural networks. Nanoscale plasmons, with their ultrafast response speed and ultrasmall mode ...
- Gigabyte Aorus FO32U2 Pro Reviewon May 14, 2024 at 6:00 am
The Gigabyte FO32U2 Pro is an absolute performer. Its picture quality is outstanding. The layer of quantum dots immediately enhances its presentation compared to prior-gen OLEDs that lacked them. The ...
- Magnetic Nanoparticle-based Approaches to Locally Target Therapy and Enhance Tissue Regeneration in vivoon May 3, 2024 at 5:01 pm
Tissue engineering or regenerative medicine offers new possibilities for the functional and structural restoration of damaged or lost tissue. Tissue engineering involves either seeding cells into ...
- Magnetic with a pinch of hydrogenon April 23, 2024 at 10:17 am
The three candidates treated with hydrogen should be easy to control magnetically and could therefore be suitable for new types of electronic components. As these layers are extremely thin ...
- Manipulating the geometry of the 'electron universe' in magnetson April 23, 2024 at 6:04 am
The team detected and magnetically controlled a non-Ohmic conduction termed the second-order Hall effect, where voltage responds orthogonally and quadratically to the applied electric current.
- Manipulating the geometry of 'electron universe' in magnetson April 21, 2024 at 5:00 pm
They detected and magnetically controlled a non-Ohmic conduction termed the second-order Hall effect, where voltage responds orthogonally and quadratically to the applied electric current.
- Gene Therapy: Non-Viral Vectorson April 18, 2024 at 8:46 am
The field explores the frontier science behind non-viral vectors such as liposomes, cationic polymers, gold nanoparticles ... charged components that magnetically draw in the negatively charged ...
- Magnetically Modulated Nanosystems: A Unique Drug-delivery Platformon April 4, 2024 at 5:00 pm
Magnetic nanoparticles modified with organic molecules have been widely used for biotechnological and biomedical applications as their properties can be magnetically controlled by applying an ...
- Achieving Monodisperse Nanoparticles: Key to Precision in Nanotechnologyon February 25, 2024 at 3:58 am
Factors such as the concentration of reactants, temperature, and stirring rate can influence the size and shape distribution of nanoparticles. Advanced synthesis techniques, including controlled ...
- Nanoparticle Characterization Systemson August 14, 2020 at 9:19 pm
Nanoparticle characterization is a process used to characterize and control nanoparticles for material synthesis and other applications. Because these particles are too small to investigate using ...
via Bing News