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| Kill Cancer Cells with nanoparticles |
Today has found a way to kill cancer cells by injecting the particles are so small that will attack only in the cells of the body that hurt. The research team uses tiny particles with lethal doses of chemotherapy and when injected, target only the cancer cells only. The researchers carried out research on cells grown in laboratory culture and also in rats that had been plagued with human prostate tumors. His research has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In mice, the tumors seen increasingly shrinking and all mice remained alive.
Single injection of nanoparticles could allegedly destroy tumors in five of seven times the treatment of injection in animals, and there was a significant reduction of tumors compared to controls.
If any part in the study were guaranteed safe, it must be tested further in order to prove safe in humans. The researchers support to carry out further testing on larger animals and also in humans.
Some reports claim that the technique of nanoparticles can cause damage to cells and be harmful to health because of its size is very small, and some experts support further research before the concept is widely used.
In the study, the researchers made a pieces of nanoparticles (tiny particles that have a cavity) combined with the drug docetaxel.
The particles are made to dissolve in the internal fluid of cells, then release the anti-cancer drugs, either slowly or rapidly. To ensure that only targeted cells are affected, usually in the nanoparticles were added with a target molecule on the outside, the so-called aptamers (small pieces of genetic material). Aptamers will specifically recognize the surface molecules of cancer cells and avoid normal cells.
The researchers chose nanoparticles as a drug carrier (vehicles) because of its size is so small that the body cells are ready to absorb them when in the cell surface.
Source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
