Nanomachine Kills Cancer Cells
Nanomachine Kills Cancer Cells
Researchers at UCLA have created a nanomachine that can take up and store anticancer drugs inside pores and then release them on command with response to light. This is known to be the first device that is light powered and capable of going inside a living cell. The researchers at UCLA used a special material known as mesoporous silica to build the nanomachines and coated the inside of the pores with azobenzene. The reason that this method works is because azobenzene responds to specific wavelengths of light by changing its conformation. As the conformation of azobenzene is changed, this causes the pores to release their contents: the anticancer drugs. It has also been shown that the release of the drugs can be monitored precisely. Researchers have found that by altering the wavelength, intensity, and excitation time, they can precisely regulate the exact time that the pores release their contents.
This method has been successfully tested in vitro on many different types of cancers including pancreatic and colon cancer. The nanomachines were given to human cancer cells in vitro and taken up by them in the dark. They found that when they shined the light on the nanomachines, the anticancer drugs were released on command; it was like they were using a remote control. The head of this research believes that the real achievement is the fact that they proved that they were able to control the precise amount of drug that was released based on the light intensity. The researchers were also thrilled that the cancer cells readily took up these nanomachines. This invention could potentially open up a whole new approach to cancer treatment using phototherapy. The advantage to this type of treatment is obviously that it is much more precise than the current technology and will not kill any cells besides the cancerous ones.
I found this article interesting because of the fact that we just did our device design projects and one of the struggles for our group was figuring out how we were going to precisely control the nanobot. This technology presents a method that would be very effective for nanobot control. I was also interested in this new technique to cancer treatment. It seems that if this type of treatment were perfected, then phototherapy would always be preferred to the current type of treatment.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080401095236.htm
Researchers at UCLA have created a nanomachine that can take up and store anticancer drugs inside pores and then release them on command with response to light. This is known to be the first device that is light powered and capable of going inside a living cell. The researchers at UCLA used a special material known as mesoporous silica to build the nanomachines and coated the inside of the pores with azobenzene. The reason that this method works is because azobenzene responds to specific wavelengths of light by changing its conformation. As the conformation of azobenzene is changed, this causes the pores to release their contents: the anticancer drugs. It has also been shown that the release of the drugs can be monitored precisely. Researchers have found that by altering the wavelength, intensity, and excitation time, they can precisely regulate the exact time that the pores release their contents.
This method has been successfully tested in vitro on many different types of cancers including pancreatic and colon cancer. The nanomachines were given to human cancer cells in vitro and taken up by them in the dark. They found that when they shined the light on the nanomachines, the anticancer drugs were released on command; it was like they were using a remote control. The head of this research believes that the real achievement is the fact that they proved that they were able to control the precise amount of drug that was released based on the light intensity. The researchers were also thrilled that the cancer cells readily took up these nanomachines. This invention could potentially open up a whole new approach to cancer treatment using phototherapy. The advantage to this type of treatment is obviously that it is much more precise than the current technology and will not kill any cells besides the cancerous ones.
I found this article interesting because of the fact that we just did our device design projects and one of the struggles for our group was figuring out how we were going to precisely control the nanobot. This technology presents a method that would be very effective for nanobot control. I was also interested in this new technique to cancer treatment. It seems that if this type of treatment were perfected, then phototherapy would always be preferred to the current type of treatment.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080401095236.htm
posted by Richard Hendrick at 3:02 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home