The “Holy Grail” Of Cancer Research Discovered

Scientists are now in the process of developing “smart packages” using nanotechnology for the treatment of various sorts of cancers. These smart packages have been formulated in such a way that they single out the cancer cells without harming the surrounding healthy cells.

The Smart Packages

This research is being carried out at the Flinders University in South Australia and is led by Professor Colin Raston in collaboration with Dr Jingxin Mo from China's Sun Yat-sen University and Professor Lee Yong Lim from the University of Western Australia.

Professor Colin Raston has hailed this innovative technology as the “holy grail” of the cancer research. According to him, these packages serve as the perfect vehicles to deliver the drugs straight to the cancerous cells.

These packages are quite “smart” as they head only for the cancer cells due to the fact that the pH of the tumor cells is quite low as compared to the healthy cells. These packages are administered along with cancer chemotherapeutic drugs and contain folate which has an affinity for the acidic environment of the cancer cells. On reaching the target cells, folate becomes unstable and releases the drug within the vehicle. The anti-cancerous drugs within kill the cancer cells.

This highly specific approach has minimized the side effects that are commonly associated with anti-cancer drugs. These packages can be used to kill cancer cells regardless of their number and type.

These packages serve as the perfect vehicle for the delivery of drugs that are specific for a certain sort of cancer. Their diameter is about 100 nanometers which is about 800 times less than the diameter of the human hair-a size that makes them ideal for targeting the cancer cells.

Smart Packages Revolutionizing the Cancer Therapy

 Smart packages have completely redefined the conventional cancer treatment modalities. Traditional methods of delivery of anti-cancer drugs result in “sewage” causing damage to the healthy cells besides killing the tumor cells. Secondly, these traditional methods are associated with a high degree of side effects.

Smart packages eliminate the chances of “sewage” by delivering pre-determined quantity of the anti-cancer drugs to the cancer cells without harming the healthy cells in the vicinity. This highly targeted approach also minimizes the side effects that usually accompany the anti-cancer treatment.

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The concept of smart packages has already been proven and a paper based on this research titled “Paclitaxel-loaded phosphonated calixarene nanovesicles as a modular drug delivery platform “has already been published in the Scientific Reports.  

According to Professor Colin Raston, most of the research work that has been done so far was focused on the cell work but the researchers have now moved forward to the next phase of the development of smart packages.

A variety of cancers are expected to be nipped in the bud with this innovation. This research has taken the cancer therapy to the next level and is being refined further in order to maximize the benefits of nanotechnology based smart packages for cancer treatment.

Supersensitive Biosensor for Cancer Detection Developed

One of the latest innovations in the field of cancer therapy is the development of a supersensitive biosensor for detecting various sorts of cancers as well as other diseases. This sensor is nearly 1 million times more sensitive as compared to other detectors that have been made to date in order to spot the cancer cells.

This biosensor was developed in a research carried out at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio and was led by Giuseppe "Pino" Strangi, professor of physics at Case Western Reserve. The study was published online in the journal Nature Materials.

Nanotechnology: The Secret behind the Biosensor

This innovation is based on nanotechnology and works by detecting a certain enzyme that is produced by the cancerous cells within the body. This enzyme is too small to be spotted by conventional cancer identifying tools.

The device is so small that it can fit the palm of the hand. It works by acting as a sieve for the enzyme produced by the cancer cells. This enzyme is less than 500 Daltons-less than 800 quadrillionths of a nanogram in size. This protein is too small in size and concentration to be easily picked up by various cancer detecting systems in practice. This biosensor has been used to detect protein molecules as small as 244 Daltons.  

Beating All the Odds

A lot of hurdles had to be overcome to increase the sensitivity of this device. The foremost problem that was encountered was that the current cancer detection systems work by using light waves. The proteins expressed by the cancer cells are too small as compared to the light waves and light waves simply cannot pick up the particles that are smaller than their own dimensions. This issue was tackled by employing nanotechnology instead of the light waves in this biosensor.

Another problem was that molecules that are present in dilute solutions float randomly and are highly unlikely to attach to the surface of any detector. To overcome this issue, nanotechnological tools were coupled with microfluidic channel which is made out of a specially formulated material known as “metamaterial”. This metamaterial is extremely sensitive in nature and even when an extremely small particle comes in contact with its surface, it causes drastic localized changes causing the light to be shifted. The amount of light that is shifted depends on the size of the particle.

The Future Prospects

This Supersensitive Biosensor has proved to be a breakthrough and is expected to detect the cancers quite early on, even earlier than the traditional cancer detecting methods used to screen for cancers. It is anticipated that it will help the oncologists in prompt diagnosis as well as in cancer monitoring. It will also help look for resistance of cancer cells.

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By identifying the amount of light shifted by various proteins, starting with various biomarkers for different sorts of cancers, the researchers hope to identify various molecules specific for certain diseases. In this way, this technology will also help in screening and monitoring of other diseases.

There is a lot that is yet to be discovered about this biosensor. This new generation of cancer detection technology has completely changed the landscape for cancer recognition and treatment.