In a November study in the new peer-reviewed, open-access journal EBioMedicine, they describe how this approach could eventually prove lifesaving for children who have relapsed after initial chemotherapy and face a less than 20 percent chance of long-term survival. “We knew that we could kill chemotherapy-resistant leukemia cells if we only knew what made them so resistant…
“To develop next generation nanomedicines with superior anti-cancer attributes, we must understand the correlation between their physicochemical properties — specifically, particle size — and their interactions with biological systems,” explains Jianjun Cheng, an associate professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In a recent study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Cheng and his collaborators systematically evaluated the size-dependent biological profiles of three monodisperse drug-silica nanoconjugates at 20, 50 and 200 nm…
source : http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140407090226.htm
A new research review co-authored by a UCLA professor provides one of the most comprehensive assessments to date of research on nanomedicine-based approaches to treating cancer and offers insight into how researchers can best position nanomedicine-based cancer treatments for FDA approval. …
Sergey Shityakov and Carola Förster of the University of Würzburg, Germany, explain that the protein, P-glycoprotein, acts as a gatekeeper, flushing out potentially harmful chemicals that enter the body as well as the naturally-occurring products of metabolism. …
"Nitric oxide has contradictory roles in cancer progression, and we need new tools in order to better understand it," says Michael Strano, the Carbon P. Dubbs Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT. …
The novel therapeutic, which is based on nanotechnology, is small and nimble enough to cross the blood-brain barrier and get to where it is needed — the brain tumor. Designed to target a specific cancer-causing gene in cells, the drug simply flips the switch of the troublesome oncogene to "off," silencing the gene. This knocks out the proteins that keep cancer cells immortal. In a study of mice, the nontoxic drug was delivered by intravenous injection. …
The device, believed to be the first to pair these functions, uses the advanced electronics material graphene oxide. In clinics, such a device could one day help doctors diagnose cancers, give more accurate prognoses and test treatment options on cultured cells without subjecting patients to traditional biopsies. "If we can get these technologies to work, it will advance new cancer drugs and revolutionize the treatment of cancer patients," said Dr…
Cancer Nanotechnology Current approaches to chemotherapy leave patients with severe side effects because anti-cancer drugs meant to destroy tumors inadvertently kill healthy cells in the body. But scientists have recently developed nanoparticles that can ferry toxic medications directly to tumors while sparing healthy tissue. Because of their small size, nanoparticles escape from leaky blood vessels that are characteristic of tumors and accumulate in the cancerous tissue. Tumor cells take up the particles which release their toxic contents once inside. …
The research is published in the latest issue of Nature Nanotechnology. "This method is fast and accurate…