Curing Cancer with Magnetic
Nanoparticles:
Nanoprobes, Inc. is a nanoparticle research
collaborative, dedicated to finding cures for cancer and other diseases. Our
technology is helping save lives around the world, at the core of the HER2
breast cancer test. Located in Yaphank, NY, our funding comes from research
grants, and sales of nanoparticle products to the scientific community; all
profits support our research.
Scientists at Nanoprobes, Inc. are heralding a
major breakthrough in cancer research, using their new magnetic nanoparticles.
After a quick intravenous injection and just three minutes inside a magnetic
field, 80% of test animals are completely cured of cancer. Their spectacular
results have just been published in The International Journal of Nanomedicine.
Six years of research were built on a simple
idea: iron particles inside an alternating magnetic field will spin back and
forth, and generate significant heat. If enough iron particles were delivered
to a tumor, you could cook the cancer. For many years, however, researchers had
been stymied by the toxic amount of iron required. To avoid poisoning the body,
researchers had tried injecting iron particles directly into tumors, but areas
missed would always regrow.
At Nanoprobes, a different approach held the
key. Senior scientist Dr. James F. Hainfeld, one of the original fathers of the
nanoparticle, decided to make the iron itself non-toxic. Together with
colleague Hui Huang, he engineered a nanoparticle with an iron core and a
biocompatible shell, which could safely be injected into the bloodstream. Sized
to specifically leak out of newly-formed blood vessels in tumors, these iron
nanoparticles will find and load cancerous tissue anywhere in the body, even
targeting metastases.
The iron-laden cancer is then easily heated in a
magnetic field; the tumors actually liquefy, while adjacent, healthy tissue
stays cool and unharmed. Afterwards, the neutralized liquid is quickly absorbed
by the body, while the nanoparticles break down slowly, allowing the iron to be
safely assimilated. The research team has achieved a cure rate of 78-90% in
mice, ablating tumors with an accuracy finer than a surgeon's knife.
It's also great news for combination therapy,
where pre-treatment with heat (hyperthermia), greatly amplifies chemotherapy
and radiation. Since magnetic fields easily pass through the human body, these
iron nanoparticles will heat previously inaccessible, deep tumors. Brain cancer
too is in their sights: where nothing else works, the lab has achieved highly
specific iron loading of brain tumors. The precision of magnetic heating would
vitally spare healthy brain tissue, compared to the collateral damage of
radiation or surgery.
The National Institutes of Health recently
granted the research group roughly a million dollars' worth of laboratory
testing, in preparation for FDA approval. "We need to bring this to
patients, as soon as possible," says Huang, now in medical school and soon
to be treating patients himself. Nanoprobes is currently organizing funding for
the clinical trials to come.
"After so many years in the trenches, I
tend to be cautious," says Dr. Hainfeld, "but I've never seen such
promising results. We're very hopeful." Because, he adds, "No one
should ever have to hear, "There's nothing more we can do."
Scientists at Nanoprobes, Inc. are heralding a major breakthrough in cancer research, using their new magnetic nanoparticles. After a quick intravenous injection and just three minutes inside a magnetic field, 80% of test animals are completely cured of cancer. Their spectacular results have just been published in The International Journal of Nanomedicine.
Six years of research were built on a simple idea: iron particles inside an alternating magnetic field will spin back and forth, and generate significant heat. If enough iron particles were delivered to a tumor, you could cook the cancer. For many years, however, researchers had been stymied by the toxic amount of iron required. To avoid poisoning the body, researchers had tried injecting iron particles directly into tumors, but areas missed would always regrow.
At Nanoprobes, a different approach held the key. Senior scientist Dr. James F. Hainfeld, one of the original fathers of the nanoparticle, decided to make the iron itself non-toxic. Together with colleague Hui Huang, he engineered a nanoparticle with an iron core and a biocompatible shell, which could safely be injected into the bloodstream. Sized to specifically leak out of newly-formed blood vessels in tumors, these iron nanoparticles will find and load cancerous tissue anywhere in the body, even targeting metastases.
The iron-laden cancer is then easily heated in a magnetic field; the tumors actually liquefy, while adjacent, healthy tissue stays cool and unharmed. Afterwards, the neutralized liquid is quickly absorbed by the body, while the nanoparticles break down slowly, allowing the iron to be safely assimilated. The research team has achieved a cure rate of 78-90% in mice, ablating tumors with an accuracy finer than a surgeon's knife.
It's also great news for combination therapy, where pre-treatment with heat (hyperthermia), greatly amplifies chemotherapy and radiation. Since magnetic fields easily pass through the human body, these iron nanoparticles will heat previously inaccessible, deep tumors. Brain cancer too is in their sights: where nothing else works, the lab has achieved highly specific iron loading of brain tumors. The precision of magnetic heating would vitally spare healthy brain tissue, compared to the collateral damage of radiation or surgery.
The National Institutes of Health recently granted the research group roughly a million dollars' worth of laboratory testing, in preparation for FDA approval. "We need to bring this to patients, as soon as possible," says Huang, now in medical school and soon to be treating patients himself. Nanoprobes is currently organizing funding for the clinical trials to come.
"After so many years in the trenches, I tend to be cautious," says Dr. Hainfeld, "but I've never seen such promising results. We're very hopeful." Because, he adds, "No one should ever have to hear, "There's nothing more we can do."
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