It has been said that nanotechnology is the future of medicine. With nanotechnology, it is possible to interact with and manipulate cellular components to produce desired effects in the body. It has the potential to cure illnesses before we even know we’re sick. Biotechnology and genetic engineering will play a vital role in the future of nanotechnology and vice versa, as they all depend on research at the molecular level. One of the potentially most beneficial aspects of medical nanotechnology is that it promises little to no side effects. Today we use medications that, while having the desired effect to treat certain conditions, also cause harmful side effects throughout the body.
Molecular biotechnology can be programmed to make changes at the cellular level without affecting the body as a whole. We are far from realizing the full potential of all that nanotechnology has to offer in medicine. However, there have recently been a couple of breakthroughs in cancer treatment using nanotechnology.
Tracking Chemotherapy at the Cellular Level
For a long time, researchers have been trying to find a way to track chemotherapy drugs in the body on a cellular level. They have considered different kinds of dyes that didn’t work, either because they contained toxic particles or because the dyes faded too quickly.
Now researchers from Ohio State University have created a type of fluorescent nanoparticles that can be combined with chemotherapy drugs for tracing after they are administered. These particles are a type of peptide that glows blue when exposed to ultraviolet light. The peptide is made from amino acids, which should have no adverse effects on the human body. The study was published this month in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.
Being able to track chemotherapy drugs on a cellular level will help doctors see why the same chemotherapy might work for some patients but not for others, and to see exactly where the drug is going, how quickly it gets there, and what the medication is targeting in the body.
Aiding Surgeons to Remove Every Single Cancerous Cell
Cancer Cells Diagram
Another recent advancement in nanotechnology helps surgeons to remove all the cancerous tissue of a tumor during the first surgical procedure. Cancerous cells are often missed in surgeries because imaging technology like MRIs and CT scans don’t always show all the cancerous cells on the margins of a tumor. They also can’t be used in real time during surgery. Currently, doctors have to analyze the tissue that surrounded a tumor for several days after a surgery before they can be certain that all the cancerous tissue has been removed.
An injectable protease-activated substance called LUM015 was developed by researchers at Duke and MIT. The substance is viewable using an imaging device when fluorescent properties are activated after interacting with certain protease enzymes in cancer cells. This procedure has been tested by researchers at Duke University Medical Center. LUMO15 has been successfully used so far to remove breast cancer sarcoma in 15 patients. This study was published this month, January 2016, in Science Translational Medicine. As nanotechnology developments, we will see great breakthroughs in cancer treatment, surgery and the medical field overall. We’re excited to see what the coming years bring in terms of these advancements.
