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Alliance-Supported Research: Targeted Nanomedicine Shrinks Human Tumors
Alliance researchers, Robert Langer, Sc.D. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and Omid Farokhzad, M.D., (Harvard Medical School), with a team of researchers from BIND Biosciences demonstrated the ability of a nanomedicine to target a receptor found on cancer cells and accumulate at tumor sites. The study, published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, indicates the treatment is safe in mice and is capable of shrinking patient tumors. Read the MIT News story about the study.
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Research News
Delivering Nanoparticles to the Cell Nucleus
While a great deal of the potential for nanotechnology to improve cancer therapy lies with the ability of nanoparticles to deliver drug payloads directly to tumors, an equally important consideration is whether nanoparticles can then get their drug payload to their intended target inside tumor cells. Now, a team of investigators from the Northwestern University Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence has developed star-shaped nanoparticle that can deliver a drug directly to a cancer cell's nucleus—an important feature for many potential anticancer therapies. The Northwestern CCNE team published their results in the journal ACS Nano.
Nanoparticle Factories Churn Out Proteins - Could Manufacture Cancer Drugs at Tumor Sites
Drugs made of protein have shown promise in treating cancer, but they are difficult to deliver because the body usually breaks down proteins before they reach their destination. To get around that obstacle, a team of researchers from the MIT-Harvard Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence has developed a new type of nanoparticle that can synthesize proteins on demand. Once these "protein-factory" particles reach their targets, the researchers can turn on protein synthesis by shining ultraviolet light on them. The MIT-Harvard CCNE team, led by Robert Langer and member Daniel Anderson, published the details of this system in the journal NanoLetters.
New Technique Detects Trace Levels of New Class of Cancer Biomarkers
A team of investigators from the Northwestern University Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence has developed a rapid, array-based technology using gold nanoparticles that is capable of detecting miRNAs, which have potential as diagnostic biomarkers for cancer and other diseases, at levels as low as 1 femtomolar (about 30,000 molecules in a drop of blood). The Northwestern CCNE team, led by Chad Mirkin and Shad Thaxton, published the details of their new assay in the journal Analytical Chemistry.
Normalizing Tumor Blood Vessels Improves Delivery of Only the Smallest Nanomedicines
A recent study published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology shows that combining two strategies designed to improve the results of cancer treatment—anti-angiogenesis drugs and nanomedicines—may only be successful if the smallest nanomedicines are used. A new study from researchers from the Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has found that normalizing blood vessels within tumors, which improves the delivery of standard chemotherapy drugs, can block the delivery of larger nanotherapy molecules. This study also showed that the smallest nanomedicines are inherently better than larger nanomedicines at penetrating tumors, suggesting that smaller nanomedicines may be ideal for cancer therapy.
'Bed-Of-Nails' Breast Implant Deters Cancer Cells
One in eight women in the United States will develop breast cancer. Of those, many will undergo surgery to remove the tumor and will require some kind of breast reconstruction afterward, often involving implants. Cancer is an elusive target, though, and malignant cells return for as many as one-fifth of women originally diagnosed. A study published in the journal Nanotechnology highlights a new type of implant developed by researchers at Brown University that may be able to deter breast cancer cell regrowth. Made from a common federally approved polymer, the implant is the first to be modified at the nanoscale in a way that causes a reduction in the blood-vessel architecture that breast cancer tumors depend upon, while also attracting healthy cells into breast tissue.
'Nanobubbles' Plus Chemotherapy Equals Single-Cell Cancer Targeting
Using light-harvesting nanoparticles to convert laser energy into "plasmonic nanobubbles," researchers at Rice University, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and Baylor College of Medicine are developing new methods to inject drugs and genetic payloads directly into cancer cells. In tests on drug-resistant cancer cells, the researchers found that delivering chemotherapy drugs with nanobubbles was up to 30 times more deadly to cancer cells than traditional drug treatment and required less than one-tenth the clinical dose. This work was published in two papers appearing in the journals Advanced Materials and PLoS One.
