Nanotechnology is definitely one of the most important branch of technology and nanoscaled components and other parts have proven to be very efficient and helpful. Using nanotechnology, researchers from the UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara and MIT have created “nanoworms” which can circulate freely through bloodstream without interefering with the immune system.
These nanoworms are a very important discovery because they could fight against tumors, as the doctors might find and unveil the exact location of tiny tumors which cannot be detected with conventional technology and equipment.
According to Michael Sailor, chemistry and biochemistry professor at the UC San Diego, the nanoworms are very efficient because “most nanoparticles are recognized by the body’s protective mechanisms, which capture and remove them from the bloodstream within a few minutes”, and thanks to “a combination of their shape and to a polymer coating on their surfaces that allows the nanoworms to evade these natural elimination processes. As a result, our nanoworms can circulate in the body of a mouse for many hours”.
An important role in the research was played by Sangeeta Bhatia, physician, bioengineer and professor of Health Sciences and Technology at MIT, who said that “these nanoworms could offer physicians the ability to increase the efficacy of drugs by allowing them to deliver them directly to the tumors”. This means that now we can treat tumors without any negative impacts on healthy tissue and the anti-cancer drugs will “concentrate” all their attention on tumors.
The nanoworms are made of spherical iron oxide nanoparticles which tend to get together in order to develop gummy worms that measure 30 nanometers long. They are very similar to earthworms saving-that they are 3 million times smaller. The nanoworms were built from iron-oxide because this composition is destined to come out very brightly at the MRI (magnetic resonance imaging).
Iron-oxide’s properties are explained better by Prof Sailor who stated that “the magnetism of the individual iron oxide segments, typically eight per nanoworm, combine to provide a much larger signal than can be observed if the segments are separated. This translates to a better ability to see smaller tumors, hopefully enabling physicians to make their diagnosis of cancer at earlier stages of development”.
The thing that allows the nanoworms to trace the tumor is the F3 peptide which is a molecule with a specific purpose: targeting the tumor. The F3 peptide was developed Erkki Ruoslahti, cell biologist and professor at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research at UC Santa Barbara.
I have to say that this discovery was kind of an accident, but we have to thank for that to Ji-Ho Park, UC San Diego graduate student in materials science and engineering, who noticed that the nanoworms wandered for hours in the bloodstream of the mice with tumors that were being tested.
ji-Ho Park stated that “this is an important property because the longer these nanoworms can stay in the bloodstream, the more chances they have to hit their targets, the tumors”.
Now, the scientists are trying to develop chemical “zip codes” with the purpose of specifically delivering the nanoworms anywhere in the body. Prof Ruoslahti is working to build “tumor-targeting nanodevices” which “will improve the diagnostic imaging of cancer and allow pinpoint targeting of treatments into cancerous tumors”. We can only hope that the people affected by cancer will finally suffer less and cure faster.
