Using Magnets for Drug Delivery in Ovarian Cancer
Ovarian
cancer is not the most common cancer in females. In 2009, there were just over 20,000 cases
reported in the United States and more than 14,000 deaths1. It is usually treatable when discovered in
the early stages when the cancer is localized to the initial organ (i.e.
ovaries); in fact, the five-year survival rate in this stage has been reported
as 91.5%1. Unfortunately, most women do not realize
something is wrong until it has progressed.
More than 60% of women are not diagnosed until it has spread to the
lymph nodes and/or distant organs. The
five-year survival rate at this stage drops down to a mere 26.9%1! Obviously, early detection and subsequent
treatment are very important for survival.
Drugs used to treat cancer can be painful, nauseating, and debilitating
when given systemically since they can also affect healthy cells and
tissues. Finding an efficacious method
to deliver the drug to only the desired tumor or region will be a major advance
in chemotherapy.
Guduru
et al2. in Scientific
Reports have found a method to selectively deliver anti-neoplastic drugs
with high selectivity to ovarian cells in vitro. This delivery method is able to differentiate
between the cancerous human ovarian cell and the normal human ovarian cell due
to the fact that tumors have different membrane electric potentials than
healthy cells. Healthy cells have a
higher membrane potential than cancerous cells.
Guduru et al. synthesized
magneto-electric nanoparticles (MENs) that contained the anti-neoplastic drug
as well as biomarker-specific antibodies on their surface. These antibodies help the MENs to localize to
the desired tissues. Then, to make sure
that only the cancerous cells encapsulate the nanoparticles, an external
magnetic field is applied that has a critical field higher than the potential
of the cancerous cells, but it is lower than that of the healthy cells. This causes the tumorous cells to become
fenestrated so that the MENs are taken into the cells. Next, the external magnetic field is
increased (yet still below the potential of the healthy cells) so that the MEN
deposits the drugs within the tumor2. See figure below.
 |
| Figure
12 Demonstration of authors’
hypothesis concerning drug delivery. |
In
vitro, the authors report that they were successful in depositing the drug load
within the cancerous cells while leaving the healthy ovarian cells
unaffected. Also, within 24 hours, the
ovarian tumors had been eradicated so the cytotoxicity of the drugs are
unaffected by this process2. It will be interesting to see if similar
results can be achieved in vivo using an animal model.
To view the original article, please use the hyperlink below:
References
1. Statistics. Ovarian
Cancer Natl Alliance. Available at:
http://www.ovariancancer.org/about-ovarian-cancer/statistics/. Accessed
November 11, 2013.
2. Guduru
R, Liang P, Runowicz C, Nair M, Atluri V, Khizroev S. Magneto-electric
Nanoparticles to Enable Field-controlled High-Specificity Drug Delivery to
Eradicate Ovarian Cancer Cells. Sci Reports. 2013;3.
doi:10.1038/srep02953.
Once again this is incredible medical technology! I was so intrigued to read that the when the drug was tested it only affected the tumor cells and not the normal cells. This is incredible because most all other cancer treatments are unable to only affect the cancerous cells. I am curious to see how this new technology will transform treatment for cancer that has passed into the brain.
ReplyDeleteThis was very interesting to read. I never knew magnets could be used in such a clever way! Not only does this cure bring itself to the right tissue but it then goes into further specificity and only engages cancerous cells and not healthy ones. I wonder if this technique could be tweaked and be used to rid cancer in other areas like prostate cancer, which is one of the most common cancers in males. Around 200,000 men a year are diagnosed with this cancer and about 30,000 lives are taken from it. if this technique can be used to target prostate cancer cells that would save roughly 30,000 lives just in the first year! Going on from there, this technique can be changed to target any other type of cancers that may appear in the body. If this technique worked for ovarian cancer then im sure the people who created this technique are working on ways to focus it onto other types of cancers.
ReplyDeleteThis is a really interesting approach for eradicating cancerous tumors. The researchers synthesized magneto-electric nanoparticles (MENs) that contained anti-neoplastic drugs. The drugs they used were known to be very effective at eradicating cancerous tumor cells. The researchers were attempting to solve the complications involving specifically targeting cancerous tumor cells and not healthy cells in the surrounding tissue. The researchers developed an ingenious technique to make the MENs specific to only the cancerous tumor cells. They took advantage of a physical difference between healthy cells and cancerous tumor cells. The magneto-electric nature of the nanoparticles allows the nanoparticles to converts external magnetic field energy into internal electric field energy. Given enough energy, this allows the nanoparticles to penetrate through the plasma membrane of a cell. The researchers took advantage of the difference between the plasma membrane electric potential of cancerous cells and healthy cells. The researchers applied an external magnetic field that was strong enough to allow the MENs to penetrate into cancerous cells, but, not strong enough to allow the MENs to penetrate into healthy cells. The researchers observed that in vitro the MENS had a very high specificity to the cancerous cells. The researchers also observed that the cancerous cells had been completely eradicated within 24 hours. Additionally, the researchers determined that no damage had been done to healthy cells in the surrounding tissue. These results are extremely exciting. Nanoparticles are becoming increasingly useful in treating diseases through various methods.
ReplyDeleteA different group of researchers were able to coax the immune system into recognizing and attacking cancer cells through using nanoparticles. The researchers injected nanoparticles into breast cancer cells in vitro. These nanoparticles were specifically targeted to mitochondria. After the nanoparticles penetrated into the cell’s mitochondria, the researchers activated the nanoparticles with a laser. The laser can penetrate tissue due to its long wavelength. Activating the nanoparticles disrupts mitochondrial processes that supply the energy to the cancerous cell. Without energy, the cancerous cells eventually die. The dead cancerous cells attract dendritic cells. The dendritic cells go on to alert the rest of the immune system to the presence of cancerous cells. The researchers determined that this technique would be very effective at priming the immune system to attack cancer cells within the body. The researchers suggested that a cancerous tumor be biopsied and treated using their technique. The patient’s dendritic cells could be primed by the dead cancerous cells in vitro. Then the primed dendritic cells could be injected back into the patient. This would minimalize the risk of harming healthy cells in the surrounding tissue. This is another example of the usefulness of nanoparticles in medicine. Both techniques are extremely effective at eradicating cancer cells through different means. Nanotechnology is becoming an increasingly important in the field of medicine. I wonder what other uses researchers will find for nanoparticles in medicine. I used the link below for the information regarding the other nanoparticle technique.
http://phys.org/news/2013-08-nanoparticles-cancer.html
This was a fascinating read as alternative drug-delivery methods are necessary to avert the issues involved with other methods of treatment. Having a relative recently pass away due to the inability to handle chemotherapy and radiation, this brings me to question how many other forms of cancer this delivery method could be used to treat. Another question I pose is how this method would be delivered in vivo. Would it be delivered intravenously or via direct injection? Also, is the membrane potential for ovarian cells unique? If not, problems may arise in vivo, as this could affect other cells, as well. This method shows great potential according to the results in vitro. It will be interesting to see further studies as this method is perfected and tested further.
ReplyDeleteThis method makes use of magneto-electric nanoparticles to localize the cancerous cells and tissues. The nanoparticles end up being taken up by the cancerous cells and with external tinkering of the magnetic field, the nanoparticles deposit the drugs within the tumor. The authors of the journal article reported successful drug deposits that affected the cancer cells without affecting the healthy cells. Within 24 hours the tumors were eliminated.
ReplyDeleteThis was done with ovarian cancer cells in vitro; however, the results show fascinating promise. Since cell cultures are much more predictable than cells in an animal, the next step would be to use an animal model for in vivo tests. A mouse model would be the most obvious choice, but successful replication of this complex disease in mice has not yet been achieved1. In order to test this method in vivo, we first need an accurate understanding of the disease and how to model it in animals2. Once this occurs, the method can be tested and if it works it may continue through the process until it is approved or denied for use on humans.
In the best-case scenario, the animal model and subsequent human trials would produce the same results or better when tested in vivo, but we know this is not always the case. I will be interested in seeing where this ends up once it can be tested on an appropriate model.
1. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19781107
2. http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=5&sid=17c62f6c-4977-4201-81e4-91632b32d331%40sessionmgr12&hid=22&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=a9h&AN=85936408
This is exciting to say the least! I have a family member who has had breast cancer (stage 3 I believe) and fought it, and also a series of other cancers. Although were so grateful that it did not overcome her, we couldn't image the unbearable suffering. She did both Chemotherapy and radiation treatments, which made her appear even worse than the cancer itself. What is sad is she said she would never go through that again. It is so sad that the main (current) treatments to the most terrifying diseases cause so much pain that the patients rather pass than complete it. Not only that, but for women it is so detrimental to her self confidence. Having spoken with many breast cancer survivors, the most common thing I have heard is that they don't feel like a woman anymore. Although these treatments have been saving lives physically, they cannot restore the person completely. With technology that has high enough specificity to only terminate damaged cells, there could be a whole new light to this disease. I can't wait to see how this pans out in the future.
ReplyDeleteI found it ironic that they used "MENs" as an acronym in an article for OVARIAN cancer...
ReplyDeleteIndeed, I have to jump on the bandwagon here and state how inspirational and incredible this technology is. Magnets are great resources to use as an alternative chemotherapy. I mean, chemotherapy is essentially poisoning the body. So if a magnet, which has no known serious side effects, could greatly increase the survival rates for patients. I must look up the particular technique to better understand it myself. It is neat to finally see an application of physics to the health sciences and an effective one at that!
Jackie is quite right, how ironic! But this is still no less of a great treatment in the field of cancer. It is amazing to see that this treatment is working and could possibly lead to even greater discoveries. The fact that it won't hurt the "good" cells is amazing and I feel as though it is a great accomplishment in the battle against cancer. There are so many great methods out there that are fighting the battle and winning. If other treatments, along with this one, were used in fighting cancer overall, we might just be looking at an brighter future.
ReplyDeleteI found this article extremely interesting, It is always refreshing to read about developing techniques and technologies that can be used to fight this dreadfully awful disease. Like most people I have seen the horrors of cancer first hand and I have also witnessed the horrors in the treatment of cancer. The devastating effects of chemotherapy and how it harms everything in the body, even the good cells, But this technology is refreshing to see developments in a treatment with no serious side affects and with the ability to harm the more dangerous cells. It is also nice to see the science behind getting the magnets to the desired location. All in all I thoroughly enjoyed this article.
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ReplyDeleteI find great joy coming across such discoveries that represent the creativity and dedication that scientists apply when finding new remedies to such happenings that are detrimental to the current society.1 Taking such characteristics – cell membrane potential, magnetics (pertaining to selectivity), steric qualities (nanoparticles) – and attributing them to promising result is definitely encouraging as to what else is to come.
ReplyDeleteIn a Developmental Anatomy lecture last week, Dr. Schraw presented a video on 60 Minutes introducing a phase one study conducted at Duke that has shown positive results when treating glioblastoma with genetically modified poliovirus.2 The modified virus is directly inserted into the head tumor, and due to its modifications, it remains within the tumor. The outcomes seemed to show that the virus was able to selectively do away with the tumor, similar to the way that the magnetic nanoparticles show positive outcomes when selectively treating ovarian cancer.
1. Guduru R, Liang P, Runowicz C, Nair M, Atluri V, Khizroev S. Magneto-electric Nanoparticles to Enable Field-controlled High-Specificity Drug Delivery to Eradicate Ovarian Cancer Cells. Sci Reports. 2013;3.
2. A Phase I Clinical Trial for Recurrent Glioblastoma Patients Opens for Accrual at the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center. Duke University Medical Center: The Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center. http://www.cancer.duke.edu/btc/modules/research3/index.php?id=41. Accessed March 27, 2016.
Here's a link to a youtube video to the "60 Minutes" video, in case you'd like more info.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssHEtvUS9eU
This discovery, I believe, holds great promise to those women fighting ovarian cancer currently, and in the future. I find great fascination in learning about cancer, which makes this article all the more amazing to me. I actually volunteer at the cancer center here in Lakelend every week directly with those receiving chemo. With this, I have directly seen the results that chemotherapy places on the patients, and it is often times not pretty. Therefore, this method gives great insight because it is not destroying the normal cells in the patients body, yielding a stronger immune system for the patients. All in all, I only can see positive results coming off of this article for the future.
ReplyDeleteThis article was very interesting to me and it is wonderful to know that the medical field has advanced this much over the years. The new technique for ovarian cancer to target the cancer cells and use magnets to help with the treatment is so profound. As it stated in the article ovarian cancer is not the most common cancer in women these days, but it has still taken the lives of 14,000 women. Sometimes by starting small with techniques such as these it is all we need to lay the foundation of treatments for various types of cancer and not jut ovarian cancer. It is exciting to see that something as simple as magnets can help in the cure for cancer. Overall, I see this technique being used in a positive way in the years to come especially since chemo and radiation are so harsh on the human body.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea that ovarian cancer was so preventable. It is incredible that the doctors were able to deposit the drugs directly into the cancer cells, while leaving the healthy cells unaffected. I suppose an important step to take after this, besides further testing is to thoroughly examine the costs of this procedure. Would it cost more for doctors and patients with this more direct administration versus the old cure. Would as many patients be able to afford it? Would as many patients be willing to invest in this, since it is a newer cure? Are there higher benefits to this versus the old administration? So far, it sounds extremely beneficial, because of the reduction in cell death. However, if I was a doctor, I would need more information before I would invest in this product.
ReplyDeleteI am always so encouraged to read articles like this, that bear good news in regards to progression in the field of medicine, especially in regards to cancer. This is especially exciting, because ovarian cancers is one of the harder cancers to detect early on, thus by developing a mean of delivering cancer fighting drugs to the region without harming nearby healthy tissue is vital. What is particularly fascinating is that such a simple mean of using magnets, based on the different electrostatic potentials, is able to deliver the drugs. I hope that this discovery leads to the decrease in deaths as a result of ovarian cancer, and that this type of procedure may be applicable to other cancers.
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