Stealthy Nanoparticles Attack Cancer Cells

Image: Cancer killers: Drug-laden nanoparticles (shown in pink) developed by BIND Biosciences have accumulated in a prostate-cancer cell (shown in green; cell nucleus in blue). The particles were designed to target prostate cancer cells. Scientists hope such particles will reduce side effects associated with chemotherapy. Credit: BIND Biosciences

From Technology Review:

Drugs embedded in special polymers can more effectively shrink tumors.

In a small manufacturing space on a Cambridge, MA, street dotted with biotech companies, Greg Troiano tinkers with a series of gleaming metal vats interweaved with plastic tubes. The vats are designed to violently shake a mix of chemicals into precise nanostructures, and Troiano's task, as head of process development at start-up BIND Biosciences, is to make kilograms of the stuff--a novel drug-infused nanoparticle. The company hopes the new drug-delivery system will diminish the side effects of chemotherapy while increasing its effectiveness in killing cancer.

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British Scientists 'Seek And Destroy' Cancer Cells Using Iron Nanoparticles

Photo: The 'nano magnets' wipe out the cancer cells without harming the surrounding tissue

From The Daily Mail:

A revolutionary technique that uses injections of iron nanoparticles to seek out and destroy cancer cells has been developed by British scientists.

The tiny particles are designed to roam through the body's blood vessels in search of tumour cells.

Once they have latched on to their targets, the magnets can be heated from outside the body using a magnetic field - wiping out the cancer cells without harming the surrounding tissue.

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UCSB Scientists Create Cancer-Stopping Nanoparticle-and-Laser Treatment

This Laser Cures Cancer, Brah: Gary Braun stands by the drug-activating laser courtesy of University of California, Santa Barbara

From Popular Science:

Nanotechnology, lasers, genetics, and cancer? If there was also something about space, this story might have been a PopSci full house. Scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), have figured out a way to deliver cancer-stopping RNA directly into the nucleus of a diseased cell. To get into the nucleus, the RNA is wrapped in special gold nanoshells which are then selectively opened by a laser.

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