Technology: Revolutionary treatment could spell new hope for cancer patients
Scientists have successfully used nanotechnology to develop a means of delivering cancer drugs to malignant cells that may be up to 10-times more effective in treating the disease than conventional methods.
Researchers at the University of Michigan were able to attach a chemotherapeutic drug to a man-made nanoparticle and then use it to infiltrate cancerous cells.
The experiments slowed tumour growth in mice by up to 30 days - roughly equivalent to three years in a human.
The treatment, which is based on a Trojan horse principle, uses an artificial polymer molecule, called a dendrimer, to transport the anti-cancer drug, methotrexate, within its structure.
The molecule also carries folic acid, a substance that all cells need in order to replicate.
In the experiments, the cancer cells accepted the dendrimer to obtain the folic acid but were then poisoned by the methotrexate.
Scientists found that the nanoparticle procedure was 10 times more effective in slowing tumour growth than chemotherapy and produced none of the side effects since only the malignant cells were targeted and healthy cells were not damaged.
"This is the first study to demonstrate a nanoparticletargeted drug actually leaving the bloodstream, being concentrated in cancer cells, and having a biological effect on an animal's tumour," said lead researcher Professor James Baker.
"Targeting drugs directly to cancer cells reduces the amount that gets to normal cells, increasing the drug's anti-cancer effect and reducing its toxicity. By improving the therapeutic index of cancer drugs we hope to turn cancer into a chronic, manageable disease," he added.
Research will now continue to determine the maximum therapeutic dose that can be administered in the procedure.
The first human clinical trials are scheduled to begin within the next two years.
