( did not receive nanoshells and laser th...)Nanoparticles, nanoshells, nanotubes: How tiny specks may provide powerful tools against cancer

The second Rice University study aims to improve the method of delivery of nanoshells to a tumor. Although the leaky blood vessel strategy can passively dump nanoshells into tumors, it cannot "find" tiny cancers that have metastasized and have not yet "recruited" a substantial system of blood vessels to feed them. To counteract that, researchers have fused a nanoshell to an antibody; the idea behindsuch "immunonanoshells" is to have a targeted nanoshell that can find a specific type of cancer wherever it may hide, says study author, bioengineering graduate student Amanda Lowery

In the study that Lowery reports, the researchers hooked "Y"-shaped anti-HER2 antibodies to nanoshells, and the antibody bound to HER2 over-expressing breast cancers. They then applied these immunonanoshells to the top of laboratory breast cancer cells, and used laser light to heat the agent. Researchers then stained the cells to see which lived and found that only HER2-expressing cells which had bound nanoshells and were exposed to the near infrared laser, died. Cells that were not exposed to laser light also survived, suggesting that the antibody-nanoshell treatment effectively destroyed HER2 over-expressing cancer cells. The research team is now planning to test this strategy in animal models.

According to Gobin, Lowery, and the Rice University faculty they work with, nanotechnology to treat cancer takes advantage of much of the biology already known about the disease, and marries it to a suite of techniques based on next era technology.

Targeting Breast Cancer and Metastases with a Combination of LHRH and Lytic Peptide, Hecate, bound to Iron Oxide Nanoparticles (Abstract 3280)

Researchers have combined a hormone, a cell-killing peptide and nanoparticles to both target and kill breast cancer cells.

The scientists, led by Carola Leusch
'"/>

Source:American Association for Cancer Research