What is innovative research in Cancer Nanotechnology?
Nanotechnology offers the means to target therapies directly and selectively to cancerous cells and neoplasms. With these tools, clinicians can safely and effectively deliver chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and the next generation of immuno- and gene therapies to the tumor. Futhermore, surgical resection of tumors can be guided and enhanced by way of nanotechnology tools. …
What are the first nanotechnology-based cancer drugs?
Abraxane is a nanoparticle made from the protein albumin attached to the chemo drug docetaxel. It stops cancer cells from dividing. Abraxane treats breast and …
How can nanomaterials be used to treat cancer?
Oct 18, 2020 · Quantum dots that emit fluorescence in the near-infrared spectrum (i.e., 700-1000 nanometers) have been designed to overcome this problem, making them more suitable for imaging colorectal cancer, liver cancer, pancreatic cancer, and lymphoma 22-24. A second near-infrared (NIR) window (NIR-ii, 900-1700 nm) with higher tissue penetration depth, higher spatial …
Can nanotechnology enhance immunotherapy for cancer treatment?
In the tumor stroma of a mouse model of pancreatic cancer, the nanoparticles delivered the chemotherapy to tumor-associated macrophages expressing IGF-1R (red) and CD68 (green). These magnetic iron nanoparticles are theranostic – capable of both diagnostic and therapeutic functions. Credit: National Cancer Institute.
What is the most efficient treatment for cancer?
What is nanotechnology for cancer treatment?
What is the latest technology in cancer treatment?
What are the most useful diagnostic technologies for cancer?
How is quantum dot used in cancer?
How is nanotechnology better than chemotherapy?
What technology is used in chemotherapy?
What is the future of cancer treatments?
What is the future of chemotherapy?
Which cancers spread the fastest?
What are three methods for diagnosing cancer?
What are the two main treatments for cancer?
How does nanotechnology help doctors?
Nanotechnology can also help doctors locate cancer in blood or tissue samples. It can spot pieces of cancer cells or DNA that are too small for current tests to pick up.
What is nanotechnology used for?
Nanotechnology for Cancer Treatment and Management . In the 1966 sci-fi movie Fantastic Voyage, a team of doctors shrank down and traveled in a tiny submarine through a Russian scientist's body to remove a blood clot in his brain.
What is the best treatment for cancer?
Doctors have used nanotechnology to treat cancer for more than a decade. Two approved treatments -- Abraxane and Doxil -- help chemotherapy drugs work better. Abraxane is a nanoparticle made from the protein albumin attached to the chemo drug docetaxel. It stops cancer cells from dividing.
What can be coated with to detect cancer?
Particles can also be coated with substances that send out a signal when they find cancer. For example, nanoparticles made from iron oxide bind to cancer cells and send off a strong signal that lights up the cancer on MRI scans. Nanotechnology can also help doctors locate cancer in blood or tissue samples. It can spot pieces of cancer cells ...
Why are nanoparticles important?
The small size of nanoparticles allows them to deliver medicines into areas of the body that would normally be hard to reach. One example is the blood-brain barrier, which prevents toxic substances from getting into the brain. It also blocks some medicines. Nanoparticles are small enough to cross this barrier, which makes them a useful treatment for brain cancer.
Why do nanoparticles have small size?
That damage is what causes side effects. The small size of nanoparticles allows them to deliver medicines into areas of the body that would normally be hard to reach.
Can nanotechnology detect cancer?
You usually need a biopsy to know for sure. Because of its small size, nanotechnology can detect changes in a very small number of cells. It can tell the difference between normal and cancer cells. And it can get to cancer at its earliest stages, when the cells have just started to divide and the cancer is easier to cure.
How can nanotechnology help cancer?
In current research, nanotechnology can validate cancer imaging at the tissue, cell, and molecular levels20. This is achieved through the capacity of nanotechnology applications to explore the tumor's environment, For instance, pH- response to fluorescent nanoprobes can help detect fibroblast activated protein-a on the cell membrane of tumor-associated fibroblasts21. Hereon, we will discuss some nanotechnology-based spatial and temporal techniques that can help accurately track living cells and monitor dynamic cellular events in tumors.
Why are nanoparticles used in cancer research?
In the past few decades, the application of nanoparticles in cancer diagnosis and monitoring has attracted a lot of attention with several nanoparticle types being used today for molecular imaging. Due to their advantages including small size, good biocompatibility, and high atomic number, they have gained prominence in recent cancer research and diagnosis. Nanoparticles used in cancer such as semiconductors, quantum dots and iron oxide nanocrystals possess optical, magnetic or structural properties that are less common in other molecules 13. Different anti-tumor drugs and biomolecules including peptides, antibodies or other chemicals, can be used with nanoparticles to label highly specific tumors, which are useful for early detection and screening of cancer cells14.
What is the action of gold nanoparticles in cancer cells?
Various types of gold nanoparticles (different sizes, morphologies, and ligands) accumulate in tumor tissues by the action of osmotic tension effect (termed Passive targeting) or localize to specific cancer cells in a ligand-receptor binding way (termed Active targeting).
What are biomarkers used for?
Such markers are used to study cellular processes, to monitor or identify changes in cancer cells, and these results could ultimately lead to a better understanding of tumors. Biomarkers can be proteins, protein fragments or DNA. Among them, tumor biomarkers, which are indicators of a tumor, can be tested to verify the presence of specific tumors. Tumor biomarkers ideally should possess a high sensitivity (>75%) and specificity (99.6%)32. Under current medical conditions, biomarkers from blood, urine, or saliva samples are used to screen individuals for cancer risk. But these biomarkers have not proven adequate for cancer screening. Therefore, several researchers have resorted to the study of extract patterns of abnormally expressed proteins, peptide fragments, glycans and autoantibodies from serum, urine, ascites or tissue samples from cancer patients33-35. With the development of proteomics technology, protein biomarkers for many cancers have been discovered.
How to improve screening with nanocarrier?
Another method to improve screening with nanocarrier is to improve the sensitivity of mass spectrometry. The unique optical and thermal properties of carbon nanotubes enhance the energy-transfer efficiency of the analyte, contributing to the absorption and ionization of the analyte, and eliminate the interference of inherent matrix ions46-48. A third approach is to use nanotechnology to make lab-on-chip microfluidics devices that can be used for immuno-screening or to study the properties of tumor cells. For example, a system showing great promise is lab-on-a-chip for high performance multiplexed protein detection using quantum dots made of cadmium selenide (CdSe) core with a zinc sulfide (ZnS) shell linked to antibodies to carcinoembryonic antigen, cancer antigen 125 and Her-2/Neu49. Another example is that cells growing on the surface of different sized nanometres, which were discovered by these nanometres across can differentiate between tumor cells50. Suffice it to say that there are still false-positive and false-negative results from screening of biomarkers by nanotechnology, and we need to improve sensitivity without compromising specificity.
What are quantum dots used for?
Quantum dots that emit fluorescence in the near-infrared spectrum (i.e., 700-1000 nanometers) have been designed to overcome this problem, making them more suitable for imaging colorectal cancer, liver cancer, pancreatic cancer, and lymphoma22-24 . A second near-infrared (NIR) window (NIR-ii, 900-1700 nm) with higher tissue penetration depth, higher spatial and temporal resolution has also been developed to aid cancer imaging. Also, the development of a silver-rich Ag2Te quantum dots (QDs) containing a sulfur source has been reported to allow visualization of better spatial resolution images over a wide infrared range25.
Can nanoparticles detect cancer?
For cancer diagnostics, imaging of tumor tissue with nanoparticles has made it possible to detect cancer in its early stages. In lung cancer, the detection of metastases can be determined by developing immune superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) that can be used in MRI imaging with the cancer cell lines as the target for the SPIONs 15. Recent studies have shown a high specificity of SPIONs with no known side effects, making them suitable building blocks for aerosols in lung cancer MRI imaging16-18,19.
What is nanotechnology?
Nanotechnology provides researchers with the opportunity to study and manipulate macromolecules in real time and during the earliest stages of cancer progression. Nanotechnology can provide rapid and sensitive detection of cancer-related molecules, enabling scientists to detect molecular changes even when they occur only in a small percentage of cells. Nanotechnology also has the potential to generate entirely novel and highly effective therapeutic agents.
How are nanoscale devices similar to 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 and inside 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.
What is the color of nanoparticles in ovarian cancer?
This image shows micelle-based nanoparticles (red) that have moved beyond the blood vessels (green) of a tumor in a mouse model of ovarian cancer. The nanoparticles diffused throughout the entire tumor within 48 hours of injection, suggesting excellent tumor-penetration capability.
What is EPR in cancer?
The passive localization of many drugs and drug carriers due to their extravasation through leaky vas culature (named the Enhanced Permeability and Retention [EPR] effect) works very well for tumors.
How to make nano drugs stay in blood longer?
To design nano-drugs that can stay in blood longer, one can “mask” these nano-drugs by modifying the surface with water-soluble polymers such as polyethylene glycol (PEG); PEG is often used to make water-insoluble nanoparticles to be water-soluble in many pre-clinical research laboratories.
What are the cells in blue that are treated with nanoparticles?
Here, when cancer cells (cell nuclei in blue) were treated with antibody-conjugated nanoparticles, the antibodies (red) and the nanoparticle cores (green) separated into different cellular compartments. Such knowledge may lead to improved methods of cancer detection in vivo as well as better nanoparticle-based treatments.
How small can a nanometer be?
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 and inside cells. By gaining access to so many areas of the body, ...
How do nanoparticles help with cancer?
Nanoparticles (NPs) can increase the stability of drugs and protect them from being metabolized during blood circulation , thus enabling reduction of the administered dose and avoidence of high dose-related toxicities. Moreover, NPs can increase the accumulation of therapeutic agents in tumor tissue and LNs, leading to enhanced therapeutic effects and reduced side effects 14. It is well known that tumors and LNs are the two main targets of immunotherapy 15, 16. NPs can passively transport into tumor tissue through immature tumor vasculature and accumulate due to damaged lymphatic drainage, a phenomenon known as the enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect 17. Also, NPs can actively target tumor cells after surface ligand modification 18. Similarly, NPs can accumulate in LNs and deliver cancer vaccines to antigen-presenting cells (APCs) to activate an immune response 19-23. What is more, NPs have distinct advantages for combination drug delivery, which can synergize multiple immunotherapy mechanisms to enhance the overall immune response 24-28. Based on the above advantages, nano-immunotherapy has become a hot topic in recent years.
What is immunotherapy for cancer?
Immunotherapy provides a new avenue for combating cancer. Current research in anticancer immunotherapy is primary based on T cell-mediated cellular immunity, which can be divided into seven steps and is named the cancer-immunity cycle. Unfortunately, clinical applications of cancer immunotherapies are restricted by inefficient drug delivery, ...
What is the fourth treatment modality?
In recent years, cancer immunotherapy has developed as the fourth treatment modality. Cancer immunotherapy evokes or boosts the inherent host immune system and then enhances antitumor immune responses, providing a new avenue to combat cancer 2. At present, most cancer immunotherapies are based on T cell-mediated cellular immunity 3, 4, ...
How does cellular immunity work?
Cellular immunity starts with the release and exposure of TAs, which are then captured by APCs such as dendritic cells (DCs) 30. After migrating to draining LNs, DCs mature and subsequently present the antigens to naive T cells via major histocompatibility complex (MHC) I and II molecules 31. Release and presentation of TAs are the preconditions of cellular immune response. However, many tumors have poor immunogenicity due to down-regulation of antigen expression, antigen loss, and antigen modulation 32, 33. Also, antigen presentation to T cells by dysfunctional DCs induces antigen-specific immunotolerance. These traps impede initiation of T cell-mediated immunity. Plenty of immunotherapies have been developed to improve the release and presentation of TAs, including induction of endogenous tumor antigens (ETAs) 34, 35, cancer vaccines, 36and blockade of the CD47 immune checkpoint 37.
What are the three standard clinical treatments for cancer?
Introduction. Cancer is one of the most severe diseases threatening human health. Chemotherapy, surgery, and radiotherapy are the three standard clinical treatments for cancer.
Does nanotechnology improve LN?
In summary, nanotechnology improved the LN targeting and safety of aAPCs. However, nanoscale aAPCs have a decreased surface area for contact with T cells compared with microscale aAPCs, which would affect their T-cell activation efficacy.
Can NPs help with tumor infiltration?
In conclusion, NPs with good stability, long circulation, and efficient tumor targeting could greatly assist the tumor infiltration of T cells. These strategies could further improve the outcomes of immunotherapies such as adoptive T-cell therapy and anti-PD-1/anti-PD-L1 therapy, which constantly suffer from a low response rate due to the T-cell infiltration issue 98, 114.
What are the benefits of nanotechnology?
Benefits of Nanotechnology for Cancer. Nanotechnology offers many possible benefits to cancer therapy, detection and diagnosis. The benefits begin by way of the fundamental properties of nanotechnology and the biological challenges of which it can help to overcome.
What is nanotechnology?
Nanotechnology is the application of materials, functionalized structures, devices, or systems at the atomic, molecular, or macromolecular scales. At these length scales, approximately the 1-100 nanometer range as defined by the U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) , unique and specific physical properties of matter exist, ...
How is nanoscale used?
Furthermore, nanoscale structure can be used as individual entities or integrated into larger material components, systems, and architectures. Nanoscale devices are one hundred to ten thousand times smaller than human cells. The depiction displays this scale in size. Credit: National Cancer Institute. This emerging field involves scientists ...
Is nanotechnology a cancer treatment?
Currently, scientists are limited in their ability to turn promising molecular discoveries into cancer patient benefits. Nanotechnology —the science and engineering of controlling matter, at the molecular scale, to create devices with novel chemical, physical and/or biological properties— can provide technical control and tools to enable ...
Is nanotechnology progressing?
Nanotechnology continues to progress into the clinic with more advanced tools than before and for more clinical indications or tumor types. Find a list of current clinical trials actively recruiting patients for these novel solutions.
What is waiting for lung cancer results?
Waiting for medical results is like watching a pot that doesn’t want to boil. When diagnosing lung cancer, many people are left waiting for what seems like an eternity. And once the results are in, the waiting doesn’t necessarily end. Those diagnosed with lung cancer often undergo additional tests to determine whether or not they will respond ...
Is the enose more accurate than the gold standard?
The research team found that the eNose is far more accurate than the current gold standard for selecting lung cancer patients who will respond to novel immunotherapy treatments.
Is enose good for lung cancer?
Though the eNose is currently only recommended for lung cancer ...
Measuring Single-Cell Mass
Cancer treatment is shifting away from a "one-size-fits-all" approach and toward a precision medicine approach, in which therapy is selected for each patient based, in part, on the genetic and molecular makeup of the patient's cancer.
Predicting Cancer Cell Responses
First, the researchers engineered a mouse cell line to be sensitive or resistant to the targeted drug imatinib (Gleevec ®). Then they treated the cells with imatinib and measured the MARs.
Advantages and Challenges
Throughout their experiments, the researchers found that MARs of individual cells from the same tumor varied widely, which, they wrote, reflects tumor heterogeneity—diversity in the molecular makeup and behavior of cancer cells in a tumor.