The benchmark for analysis of tumours is still through a metastatic solid biopsy unfortunately this approach is difficult to apply in the early stages of cancer. It is thought that by capturing CTCs liquid biopsies could be performed to capture the break-away tumour cells floating in the peripheral bloodstream and allow for earlier detection.

Isolating and detecting these CTCs in the blood is technically very difficult due to their low abundance (a few per millilitre) to a large amount of other cells in the blood.

This hasnt stopped a group of researchers at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the California Nanosystems Institute at UCLA who have developed a system to do just this. They have designed an efficinet cell capture platform based on 3D nanoscale silicon pillars with far higher efficiency then any other method.

This revolutionary cell capture technique has a very viability, which means the cells can be extracted and grown in culture allowing molecular diagnosis of cancer. Ultimately this would allow for earlier detection of cancer. This in itself would allow for a better prognosis with disease diagnosis. As with many types of cancer early detection allows for more successful treatment.

Not only this as measuring abundance of cancer cells in the peripheral blood will allow for monitoring the efficacy of cancer treatments to monitor disease regression. – CT

Source: Nanowerk

Image: Annie Cavanagh, Wellcome images

Professor Errki Ruoslahti of the University of California Santa Barbara’s Burnham Institute for Medical Research has been awarded $2.8 million to develop ‘Hybrid nanotechnologies for detection and synergistic therapies of breast cancer’.

The research team are developing new diagnostic tools to improve early detection, and reduce unnecessary procedures. This will be achieved through the use of nanoparticles as a contrast agent to aid the detection of tumours, which at present would not be detected by MRI. This would both help to diagnose a tumor and help stage its development.

This highlights the promise of nanomedicine for the future. As nanoparticles can be engineered to perform a diverse set of functions, such as targeting to a tumour for both synergistic diagnostics and treatment by targeting a therapeutic agent with the nanoparticle. – CT

Source: UCSB

So far due to safety concerns there is only one adjuvant that has been approved for human use in the united states. This is aluminum hydroxide (alum), which is used in vaccines for tetanus and hepatitis B. Still the use of alum will only work with certain diseases and mostly very weakly.

This is where the research team from the Oregon State University step in with their new nanoparticle based adjuvant. There adjuvant is based on nanoparticles prepared with lecithin, which is a common food product.

Lecithin is a group of fatty substances that are found in many animal and plant tissues, most commonly associated with egg yolk. It is regarded as a non-toxic surfactant.

In animal studies lecithin was shown to assist protein antigens to warrant an immune response six times more potent then when alum was used. Moreover it was shown that the lecithin adjuvant allowed a reasonable immune response with only one vaccination jab. Whereas with the use of alum it would take 2-3 shots to warrant the same response.

Based on these results, researchers believe the lecithin nanoparticles adjuvant has great potential for being used in many applications with a good safety profile.

The key issue with designing adjuvants is safety. It is always of the upmost importance that any healthy person receiving a vaccination should not see adverse effects from that vaccine. For this reason the U.S. FDA has always been very conservative with approval of any new vaccine adjuvants.

The belief is that the alum adjuvant has very limited value especially for vaccines against tumors or viruses. By stark contrast the lecithin nanoparticle adjuvant is far more effective. As the incredibly small particles it is made up of can move easily to the lymphatic system, which is key to creating the immune response needed to infer future protection to the individual.

At this time the animal studies have shown that lecithin seems to be tolerated well even more so then alum. If the adjuvant were to be shown safe following clinical trials it could revolutionize vaccine production – CT

Source: Nanowerk

Albumin, a tiny particle found readily in the blood is being used to carry radioactive isotopes to sites of cancerous tumors in the body. With the added benefit of avoiding many of the side-effects of conventional radiotherapies.

In the current issue of the International Journal of Nanotechnology and Biomaterials, Virginia Nazarica Borza et al, from the National Institute of R&D for Physics and Nuclear Engineering in Bucharest, Romania there is a report on the use of human serum albumin nanoshperes being labelled with Rhenium-188 radioisotope.

Previously termed therapies known as ‘magic bullets’ against cancers have been developed for many years. But not since the application of nanotechnology in medicine have the treatments lived up to their name. But now these amazing treatments could be one step closer, as drug delivery direct to the site that requires treatment will increase efficacy of the treatment whilst limiting its side effects. Nanoparticles are the key to this, with their unique chemical and physical properties they can be harnessed to develop such a therapeutic agent.

Borza has shown that these nanospheres can be loaded with our own human albumin attached to radioactive isotopes capable of emitting beta particles. Beta particle decay is in the form of high-energy electrons, which will be given off as the radioactive isotope decays.

The next concern is, of course, the about radioisotopes released inside the body. But not to worry as the team from Romania have worked out the optimal safe parameters for the cancer killing nanospheres. With a high enough radioactivity to destroy the cancerous cells but a short enough half-life to ensure that the radioisotopes do not stay radioactive for too long so that distant tissues do not feel their effects.

The nanospheres are produced in a process involving heating the albumin particles with Rhenium-188, in the presence of a tin salt, a chelating agent, tartate and stannous chloride.

We won’t be seeing this treatment just yet in a clinical setting as the treatment is still at the level of pre-clinical trials to determine their targeting abilities and therapeutic efficacy. But fingers crossed and watch this space! – CT

Source: Nanowerk

A collaborative effort between researchers at the university of Michigan and Nanobio Corporation have lead to the development of a new lotion that inhibits bacterial growth, when applied to second degree burns.

Sites of extensive skin damage are sites that become easily infected with bacterium as the bodies first defensive wall to microbes has been destroyed. For this reason the lotion is a welcome addition to burn treatments to combat the problem of bacterial infection of the burn site.

This new lotion has overcome the shortcommings of other creams as it can penetrate the skin and kill sub-surface bacterium.

The technique was discovered by a team from the University of Michigan Medical School by Mark Hemilla M.D. a surgeon.

The lotion contains soybean oil, alcohol, water and detergents. The constituents are emulsified into droplets with a less than 400nm diameter.

This technique was shown to reduce bacterial growth 100-fold in animal tests, compared to those with no treatment or a placebo. It would seem that the lotion also shows bacteriocidal, virocidal and fungicidal effects from previous research.

The mechanism of function seems to indicate the inhibition of two cytokines that are important for signalling post- burn. This correlates to a reduction in inflammation allowing limitation of damage in the post-burn period. As it is well known that excessive inflammtion after damage to tissue can cause more damage then good by creating further tissue damage.

The lotion thus has a duel action ideal for the treatment of burns. In the first instance reucing inflammtion whillst at the same time reducing bacterial growth, reducing the likelihood of bacterial infection post-burn. – CT

Source: Nanomednet

A new method to enhance drug delivery has been developed at UC Santa Barbara. The method utilizes a biological system of gaining access to cells.

One of the most difficult barriers to cross in drug delivery is the movement of the drug from the circulation into the tissue. This technique provides a ay of achieving this.

A nanoparticle can be attached to the N-terminus of a peptide, which posses a ‘motif’ that allows it to enter the cell. These motifs consist of amino acid sequences containing arginine and lysine, situated at the peptides C-terminus.

The team at UCSB have specifically targeted prostate cancer cells with this technique but reiterate that the technique can be applied to many different cell and tissue types.

This method of delivering the nanoparticles from the circulation into the tissue will increase the efficiency of drug delivery systems.

With another barrier crossed for successful nanoparticle drug delivery the day we may be able to implement these techniques will draw closer. This may prove to be a huge step towards having a fully functioning nanoparticle drug delivery system. – CT

Source: UCSB

A novel development from researchers at Jackson State University utilizes gold nanoparticles to detect a biomarker implicated in Alzheimer’s disease to a 100 fold sensitivity level to anything else that has been developed so far. This could pave the way for incredibly early detection of the neurodegenerative disease Alzheimer’s.

The cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in patients with Alzheimer’s disease has abnormally high levels of a highly phosphorylated protein known as tau. Tau is a protein which is involved with microtubule stability.

The role that tau plays in Alzheimer’s is not fully understood but what is known is that is always found highly phosphorylated in brain tissue of Alzheimer’s sufferers. It is hypothesized that it will form aggregates with other tau molecules and possibly cause inflammation in the brain leading to the associated memory loss found in Alzheimer’s disease.

The technique is based on a monclonal antibody (anti-tau), which is conjugated with gold nanoparticles. The monoclonal antibody-nanoparticle complex will aggregate in the presence of the phosphorylated tau. It can then be readily detected by a color change unearthed by detection through two-photo light scattering.

This technique allows far more rapid, reliable and early detection of Alzheimer’s. As it affects currently an estimated 26.6 million people this could be an amazing breakthrough for Alzheimer’s treatment. It will become even more important as the incidence of Alzheimer’s will increase over the next forty years.

This technique coupled with the new genes identified for Alzheimer’s disease could form a potent partnership for new treatments of Alzheimer’s disease which so far have very little to offer. – CT

Source: Nanotechweb.com

The aim would then be to target the diseased tissues only, limiting any damage you would cause to the healthy neuronal networks of the brain. This is one of the major causes of side-effects seen in cancer sufferers.

The answer is nanomedicine utilizing nanoparticles consisting of inorganic titanium dioxide interfaced with soft biological material. This allows nanomaterials to be put into use for biomedical applications.

What has been demonstrated is that these nanoparticles can be effectively targeted towards a specific target tissue. This was made easier by the fact that brain cancer has a unique receptor that can be targeted giving the treatment its specificity.

The specificity is conferred by the nanoparticles bound soft biological material, which in this instance is an antibody. Antibodies have incredibly specialized binding sites that will recognize a specific protein region known as the antibodies antigen. This allows for the antibodies to bind with high specificity to certain regions of the diseased cells. In this case the antigen is a diseased cells cell surface receptor.

Once the antibody has been bound to its target light can be shone on the nanoparticle. This causes the formation of oxygen free radicals. These free radicals will go into the cell and attack the cell’s DNA and mitochondria (the cell’s every production organelle). Once this is noticed the mitochondria will release chemical messengers to signal the cell to undergo a process of programmed death known as apoptosis.

What was most amazing is that it took only six hours of shining light on the nanoparticles to induce elevated cellular toxicity rates in almost 100% of the cancerous cells. With further enhancement it is foreseeable that you could be diagnosed with cancer and within a few days and some light treatment obliterating most of your diseased cells.

The technique is at the stage of pre-clinical model testing with a view to develop it further for a clinical setting.

What this means, more importantly, is a far less barbaric approach to cancer treatment that doesn’t fall under the slash, poison and burn headings of treatment. Leaving the patient with noticeable side-effects. This may pave the way for treatments that are vastly more effective and at the same time have no side-effects – CT

Source: Science Daily

Great news for anyone that is afraid of needles! There has been a new design for a painless microneedle patch that may eliminate the need for hypodermic needles. It may put to an end the need for annual flu shots.

More than this the microneedle system would make giving injections as simple as applying a plaster. This would allow patients to self administer their medication. This would be a great step in making healthcare cheaper and more accessible especially in countries with poor health infrastructures. It would eliminate the need for trained health professionals spending time to administer medicines with hypordermic needles. This would make treatment of many illnesses far easier i.e. diabetes sufferers that need insulin injections.

An immediate application foreseen for the microneedle would be a self applicable flu vaccine. This would mean people could go to a pharmacy and get their flu vaccine for the year without having to make doctors appointments. This would both free up the time of the medical practitioner and the patient. So far this flu vaccination by microneedle is still being tested in animal studies. The first human trial will hopefully be undertaken in 2010.

Another application for the microneedle injection system is the administration of drugs for macular degeneration. This is usually an unpleasant procedure as the drugs need to be directly injected into the eye. There are of course safety concerns about long-term injections into the eye, the microneedle injection system would foreseeably address these concerns. – CT

Source: ION and EurekAlert