Earth & Sky

Using nanotech to mark and starve tumors

On the left, the yellow fluoresence shows nanoparticles homing in on a tumor in a mouse 24 hours after injection. On the right is an image of the superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles. Photo courtesy of Ji Ho Park.

A team of scientists is using nanotechnology to invent new ways for doctors to find even the smallest cancerous tumors, and treat them before they grow.

Michael Sailor, a chemist at the University of California, San Diego, is part of this team. He and his colleagues are working to create microscopic nanoparticles – tiny bits of magnetic iron oxide only a few atoms in diameter – that target and mark small tumors.

This process would make the tumors easier for doctors to detect on MRI scans. And that’s important because one of the best ways to treat cancer is to detect and destroy tumors early on.

Michael Sailor: One aspect of this work is to develop a material that can improve our ability to image tumors even when they’re at a very small size. And these iron oxide nanoparticles, because they’re magnetic, will show up very brightly in these images.

Sailor told Earth & Sky that the nanoparticles potentially could be used not only to find tumors but also to destroy them.

Michael Sailor: Maybe we can have the particles go into the tumor vasculature, the blood vessels that feed the tumor, clog them up, create a clot, and then starve the tumor of a blood supply and kill the tumor before it has a chance to grow any larger.

So far, Sailor and his team have tested the nanoparticles in mice and found them to effectively block about 20% of vessels feeding a tumor. Sailor hopes this technique will eventually be used to treat cancer in humans.

Written by Jeremy Shere