04-07-2012, 11:52 AM
NANOTECHNOLOGY CRITICAL ENDEAVOR IN CANCER
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ABSTRACT
The advent of nanotechnology in cancer research couldn’t have come at a more opportune time. The vast knowledge of cancer genomics and proteomics emerging as a result of the Human Genome Project is providing critically important details of how cancer develops, which, in turn, creates new opportunities to attack the molecular underpinnings of cancer. However, scientists lack the technological innovations to turn promising molecular discoveries into benefits for cancer patients. It is here that nanotechnology can play a pivotal role, providing the technological power and tools that will enable those developing new diagnostics, therapeutics, and preventives to keep pace with today’s explosion in knowledge.
Nanotechnology provides the sized materials that can be synthesized and function in the same general size range and Biologic structures. Attempts are made to develop forms of anticancer therapeutics based on nanomaterials. Dendritic polymer nanodevices serves as a means for the detection of cancer cells, the identification of cancer signatures, and the targeted delivery of anti-cancer therapeutics (cis-platin, methotrexate, and taxol) and contrast agents to tumor cells. Initial studies documented the synthesis and function of a targeting module, several drug delivery components, and two imaging/contrast agents. Analytical techniques have been developed and used to confirm the structure of the device. Progress has been made on the specifically triggered release of the therapeutic agent within a tumor using high-energy lasers. The work to date has demonstrated the feasibility of the nano-device concept in actual cancer cells in vitro.
INTRODUCTION
Nanotechnology offers the unprecedented and paradigm-changing opportunity to study and interact with normal and cancer cells in real time, at the molecular and cellular scales, and during the earliest stages of the cancer process. Through the concerted development of nanoscale devices or devices with nanoscale materials and components, the NCI Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer will facilitate their integration within the existing cancer research infrastructure. The Alliance will bring enabling technologies for:
• Imaging agents and diagnostics that will allow clinicians to detect cancer earliest stages
• Systems that will provide real-time assessments of therapeutic and surgical efficacy for accelerating clinical translation
• Multifunctional, targeted devices capable of bypassing biological barriers to deliver multiple therapeutic agents directly to cancer cells and those tissues in the microenvironment that play a critical role in the growth and metastasis of cancer .
• Agents that can monitor predictive molecular changes and prevent precancerous cells from becoming malignant
• Novel methods to manage the symptoms of cancer that adversely impact quality of life
• Research tools that will enable rapid identification of new targets for clinical development and predict drug resistance.
NANOTECHNOLOGY IN CANCER
Nanoscale devices are somewhere from one hundred to ten thousand times smaller than human cells. They are similar in size to large biological molecules ("biomolecules") such as enzymes and receptors. As an example, hemoglobin, the molecule that carries oxygen in red blood cells, is approximately 5 nanometers in diameter. Nanoscale devices smaller than 50 nanometers can easily enter most cells, while those smaller than 20 nanometers can move out of blood vessels as they circulate through the body.
Because of their small size, nanoscale devices can readily interact with biomolecules on both the surface of cells and inside of cells. By gaining access to so many areas of the body, they have the potential to detect disease and deliver treatment in ways unimagined before now. And since biological processes, including events that lead to cancer, occur at the nanoscale at and inside cells, nanotechnology offers a wealth of tools that are providing cancer researchers with new and innovative ways to diagnose and treat cancer.
NANOTECHNOLOGY AND CANCER THERAPY
Nanoscale devices have the potential to radically change cancer therapy for the better and to dramatically increase the number of highly effective therapeutic agents. Nanoscale constructs can serve as customizable, targeted drug delivery vehicles capable of ferrying large doses of chemotherapeutic agents or therapeutic genes into malignant cells while sparing healthy cells,greatly reducing or eliminating the often unpalatable side effects that accompany many current cancer therapies.
On an equally unconventional front, efforts are focused on constructing robust “smart” nanostructures that Will eventually be capable of detecting malignant cells in vivo, pinpointing their location in the body, killing the cells, and reporting back that their payload has done its job. The operative principles driving these current efforts are modularity and multifunctionality, i.e., creating functional building blocks that can be snapped together and modified to meet the particular demands of a given clinical situation.
NANOWIRES
In this diagram, nano sized sensing wires are laid down across a microfluidic channel. These nanowires by nature have incredible properties of selectivity and specificity. As particles flow through the microfluidic channel, the nanowire sensors pick up the molecular signatures of these particles and can immediately relay this information through a connection of electrodes to the outside world.
These nanodevices are man-made constructs made with carbon, silicon and other materials that have the capability to monitor the complexity of biological phenomenon and relay the information, as it is monitored, to the medical care provider.
They can detect the presence of altered genes associated with cancer and may help researchers pinpoint the exact location of those changes
CANTILEVERS
Nanoscale cantilevers – microscopic, flexible beams resembling a row of diving boards – are built using semiconductor lithographic techniques. These can be coated with molecules capable of binding specific substrates—DNA complementary to a specific gene sequence, for example. Such micron-sized devices, comprising many nanometer-sized cantilevers, can detect single molecules of DNA or protein.
As a cancer cell secretes its molecular products, the antibodies coated on the cantilever fingers selectively bind to these secreted proteins. These antibodies have been designed to pick up one or more different, specific molecular expressions from a cancer cell. The physical properties of the cantilevers change as a result of the binding event. Researcherscan read this change in real time and provide not only information about the presence and the absence but also the concentration of different molecular expressions.
Nanoscale cantilevers, constructed as part of a larger diagnostic device, can provide rapid and sensitive detection of cancer-related molecules.