Nanotechnology Center Unveil Breakthrough Cancer Treatment

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Arkansas Researchers Unveil Breakthrough Cancer Treatment
By Mark Carter
arkansasbusiness.com

Scientists at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences haven't cured cancer, but on Monday unveiled research they believe will make cancer treatment less intrusive, less expensive and much more effective.

Within the next decade, traditional forms of cancer treatment such as surgery, radiation therapy and chemotherapy could be replaced by a process developed in Little Rock that uses carbon nanotubes to detect, track and ultimately destroy cancer cells.

The research, published in the Journal of Biomedical Optics, was announced at UALR by lead researchers Dr. Alex Biris, chief scientist with UALR's Nanotechnology Center, and Dr. Vladimir Zharov, director of the laser and nanomedicine labs of the Winthrop Rockefeller Cancer Institute at UAMS.

Their method entails targeting cancer cells with nanoparticles, 25,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair, which attach themselves to the bad cells and reveal to doctors the precise location of the cancer. The nanoparticles attached to the cancerous cells are then heated by a laser and destroyed.

Raman spectroscopy is the technology by which scientists can monitor and detect, in real time, nanoparticles moving through the circulation and detect cancer cells "tagged" with the carbon nanotubes. Successful experiments have been conducted on laboratory rats. The end result has been simply a dead cell within the subject and nanoparticles that within hours disintegrate.

Through their research, Biris, Zharov and Dr. Ekaterina Glanzha of UAMS injected a single cancer cell containing carbon nanotubes into the tail vein of a test rat. Using a Raman spectrometer, they were able to follow the circulation of the nanotubes through the rat's blood vessels through the lymphatic system and tissue up to its ear.

From there, Biris and Zharov were able to tag the cancer cell, target it with a laser and destroy it.

The ramifications are far-reaching, said Dr. Daniel Casciano, project adviser and former director of the Food & Drug Administration's National Center for Toxicological Research at Jefferson. He estimated this new treatment could be commonplace and used in place of traditional cancer therapy within the next decade.

"This represents a more exact, more precise and more cost-effective means of treating cancer," he said. "And there is a therapeutic benefit as well because we can target the cancer cells without killing or injuring normal cells."

Casciano noted the biomedical significance of the discovery, including the identification of solid tumors; the identification of circulating and/or metastic cancer cells; the development of personalized cancer therapies; and the design of therapies to specifically target and kill cancer cells alone while not affecting normal tissue.

The economic importance of the research ranges from the development of nanomedical spinoff companies focusing on diagnostic therapies and tools, the reduction of personalized health-care costs and potential increase in success rates, and the ability to distinguish between different types of cancer.

Casciano cited the collaboration between UALR, UAMS, NCTR and Arkansas research universities including the University of Arkansas, University of Central Arkansas, Arkansas State University and Arkansas Tech University, which he said has made such research possible. He said plans were in the early stages for an Arkansas nanomedical center in Little Rock that would serve as a destination for future collaborative research.

The first commercial application of the nanotube procedure likely will come in breast and prostate cancer, he said, because more currently is known about those forms of cancer than other types of the disease. The path from lab to bedside application remains a long one, though, as Casciano noted that more research is needed pertaining to human-subject experiments and the issue of the nanoparticles' potential toxicity.

Biris noted that researchers are aware of the toxicity risk and touted the involvement of NCTR in the project. He said the amount of toxicity involved is very small and well below levels considered toxic.

Zharov said other applications for this nanotechnology, include early diagnosis, prevention and effective treatment of stroke, heart attack, infections and neurological disorders.

"This tool will provide this function as a supplement or even an alternative to existing methods" of treatment, he said.

Zharov described the procedure as a biological "Enola Gay" delivering nanoparticles to cancer cells. Scientists are confident the nanotubes will do their job just as well.