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Gold nanoparticles for cancer diagnosis
Medical Science News
Published: Wednesday, 1-Aug-2007
- Gold nanoparticles for cancer diagnosis
When it comes to searching out cancer cells, gold may turn out to be a precious metal.
Purdue University researchers have created gold nanoparticles that are capable of identifying marker proteins on breast cancer cells, making the tiny particles a potential tool to better diagnose and treat cancer. The technology would be about three times cheaper than the most common current method and has the potential to provide many times the quantity and quality of data, said Joseph Irudayaraj, an associate professor of agricultural and biological engineering.
"We hope that this technology will soon play a critic
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Gold nanoparticles for cancer diagnosis
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Directed nanoparticles deliver gene therapy
Medical Science News
Published: Tuesday, 31-Jul-2007
Print - Directed nanoparticles deliver gene therapy Printer Friendly
After binding DNA segments to tiny iron-containing spheres called nanoparticles, researchers have used magnetic fields to direct the nanoparticles into arterial muscle cells, where the DNA could have a therapeutic effect.
Although the research, done in cell cultures, is in early stages, it may represent a new method for delivering gene therapy to benefit blood vessels damaged by arterial disease.
The nanoparticles are extremely small, ranging from 185 to 375 nanometers (a nanometer is one billionth of a meter, or a millionth of a millimeter). For comparison, red blood cells are ten to 100 times larger. The researchers were able to control the nanoparticle size by varying the amount or composition of solvents they used to form the nanoparticles.
The magnetically driven delivery system also may find broader use as a vehicle for delivering drugs, genes or cells to a target organ. "This is a novel delivery system, the first to use a biodegradable, magnetically driven polymer to achieve clinically relevant effects," said study leader Robert J. Levy, M.D., the William J. Rashkind Chair of Pediatric Cardiology at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. "This system has the potential to be a powerful tool."
The proof-of-principle study, performed on vascular cells in culture, appears in the August issue of the FASEB Journal, published by the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology.
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Directed nanoparticles deliver gene therapy |
