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

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