We are in such an exciting time. Medicine is finally opening its doors
to not only natural products and the benefits of traditional remedies,
but also allowing some really fantastic research from other fields to
impact our health. For example, today I read about new research being
done in the field of nanotechnology, where researchers have identified
a way to use magnetic nanoparticles to help escort cancer cells out of
the body. It sounds like science fiction, but it is the real deal,
happening right now due to the work of a PhD student and his advisor.

Scientists at Georgia Tech have developed a potential new treatment
against cancer that attaches these particles to cancer cells, allowing
them to be captured. The treatment, which has been tested in the
laboratory and will now be looked at in survival studies, is detailed
online in the "Journal of the American Chemical Society."

"We've been able to use magnetic nanoparticles to capture free-
floating cancer cells and then take them out of the body," said John
McDonald, chair of the School of Biology at Georgia Tech and chief
research scientist at the Ovarian Cancer Institute. "This technology
may be of special importance in the treatment of ovarian cancer where
the malignancy is typically spread by free-floating cancer cells
released from the primary tumor into the abdominal cavity.”

It was actually a PhD student at Georgia Tech who had the original
concept. Ken Scarberry, who is doing his PhD studies in Tech's School
of Chemistry and Biochemistry, conceived of the idea as a means of
extracting viruses and virally infected cells from the body. His
advisor, Chemistry professor John Zhang, had another idea. He asked if
the technology could be applied to cancer. Scarberry then suggested it
might be an effective means of preventing cancer cells from spreading.

They began by testing the therapy on mice. After attaching these
magnetic particles to the cancer cells in the mice, they were able to
apply a magnet and move the green cancer cells to the abdominal
region.

“If the therapy is able to pass further tests that show it can prevent
the cancer from spreading from the original tumor,” Scarberry said,
“it could be an important tool in cancer treatment.”

Existing biotechnology uses antibodies to fight cancer, but there is
often an immune response which can halt the progress. In this magnetic
nanoparticle process a unique peptide-targeting strategy is used, and
the composition of the magnetic nanoparticles does not appear to
create an immune response.

"If you modify the nanoparticle and target it directly to the tumor
cells using a small peptide, you are less likely to generate an
undesirable immune response and more accurately target the cells of
interest,” said Research Scientist Erin Dickerson.

The research team is collaborating with other groups at Georgia Tech
on this method and other interesting ideas. While it will take awhile
from here to do the additional studies necessary to bring this idea to
the clinic, we may someday soon have new tools for treating certain
cancers, thanks to the ideas of this student and his Professor.

Dave

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