Final Nano
- 1. Author(s) Name(s):Vedhameenakshi.R and Vinotha.S.T Author Affiliation(s): Velammal College of engineering and technology, Madurai E-mail:vedhameena@yahoo.com MEDICAL NANOTECHNOLOGY CRITICAL ENDEAVOR IN CANCER 1.0 ABSTRACT: 2.0 INTRODUCTION The advent of nanotechnology in cancer research Nanotechnology offers the unprecedented couldn’t have come at a more opportune time. The vast and paradigm-changing opportunity to study and knowledge of cancer genomics and proteomics interact with normal and cancer cells in real time, at emerging as a result of the Human Genome Project is the molecular and cellular scales, and during the providing critically important details of how cancer earliest stages of the cancer process. Through the develops, which in turn creates new opportunities to concerted development of nanoscale devices or attack the molecular underpinnings of cancer. However, devices with nanoscale materials and components, scientists lack the technological innovations to turn the NCI Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer promising molecular discoveries into benefits for will facilitate their integration within the existing cancer patients. It is here that nanotechnology can play cancer research infrastructure. The Alliance will a pivotal role, providing the technological power and bring enabling technologies for: tools that will enable those developing new diagnostics, therapeutics, and preventives to keep pace with today’s • Imaging agents and diagnostics that will allow explosion in knowledge. clinicians to detect cancer earliest stages Nanotechnology provides the sized materials that • Systems that will provide real-time assessments can be synthesized and function in the same general of therapeutic and surgical efficacy for size range and Biologic structures. Attempts are made accelerating clinical translation to develop forms of anticancer therapeutics based on • Multifunctional, targeted devices capable of nanomaterials. Dendritic polymer nanodevices serves as bypassing biological barriers to deliver multiple a means for the detection of cancer cells, the therapeutic agents directly to cancer cells and identification of cancer signatures, and the targeted those tissues in the microenvironment that play delivery of anti-cancer therapeutics (cis-platin, a critical role in the growth and metastasis of methotrexate, and taxol) and contrast agents to tumor cancer. cells. Initial studies documented the synthesis and • Agents that can monitor predictive molecular function of a targeting module, several drug delivery changes and prevent precancerous cells from components, and two imaging/contrast agents. becoming malignant Analytical techniques have been developed and used to • Novel methods to manage the symptoms of confirm the structure of the device. Progress has been cancer that adversely impact quality of life made on the specifically triggered release of the • Research tools that will enable rapid therapeutic agent within a tumor using high-energy identification of new targets for clinical lasers. The work to date has demonstrated the development and predict drug resistance. feasibility of the nano-device concept in actual cancer cells in vitro.
- 2. 3.0 NANOTECHNOLOGY IN CANCER functional building blocks that can be snapped together and modified to meet the particular Nanoscale devices are somewhere from one demands of a given clinical situation. hundred to ten thousand times smaller than human cells. They are similar in size to large biological 5.0 NANOWIRES molecules ("biomolecules") such as enzymes and receptors. As an example, hemoglobin, the In this diagram, nano sized sensing wires molecule that carries oxygen in red blood cells, is are laid down across a microfluidic channel. These approximately 5 nanometers in diameter. Nanoscale nanowires by nature have incredible properties of devices smaller than 50 nanometers can easily enter selectivity and specificity. As particles flow through most cells, while those smaller than 20 nanometers the microfluidic channel, the nanowire sensors pick can move out of blood vessels as they circulate up the molecular signatures of these particles and through the body. can immediately relay this information through a connection of electrodes to the outside world. Because of their small size, nanoscale devices can readily interact with biomolecules on These nanodevices are man-made both the surface of cells and inside of cells. By constructs made with carbon, silicon and other gaining access to so many areas of the body, they materials that have the capability to monitor the have the potential to detect disease and deliver complexity of biological phenomenon and relay the treatment in ways unimagined before now. And information, as it is monitored, to the medical care since biological processes, including events that provider. lead to cancer, occur at the nanoscale at and inside cells, nanotechnology offers a wealth of tools that They can detect the presence of altered are providing cancer researchers with new and genes associated with cancer and may help innovative ways to diagnose and treat cancer. researchers pinpoint the exact location of those changes 4.0 NANOTECHNOLOGY AND CANCER THERAPY Nanoscale devices have the potential to radically change cancer therapy for the better and to dramatically increase the number of highly effective therapeutic agents. Nanoscale constructs can serve as customizable, targeted drug delivery vehicles capable of ferrying large doses of chemotherapeutic agents or therapeutic genes into malignant cells while sparing healthy cells, greatly reducing or eliminating the often unpalatable side effects that 6.0 CANTILEVERS accompany many current cancer therapies. On an equally unconventional front, Nanoscale cantilevers – microscopic, efforts are focused on constructing robust “smart” flexible beams resembling a row of diving boards – nanostructures that Will eventually be capable of are built using semiconductor lithographic detecting malignant cells in vivo, pinpointing their techniques. These can be coated with molecules location in the body, killing the cells, and reporting capable of binding specific substrates—DNA back that their payload has done its job. The complementary to a specific gene sequence, for operative principles driving these current efforts are example. Such micron-sized devices, comprising modularity and multifunctionality, i.e., creating many nanometer-sized cantilevers, can detect single molecules of DNA or protein.
- 3. As a cancer cell secretes its molecular 8.0 NANOPARTICLES products, the antibodies coated on the cantilever fingers selectively bind to these secreted proteins. Nanoscale devices have the potential to These antibodies have been designed to pick up one radically change cancer therapy for the better and to or more different, specific molecular expressions dramatically increase the number of highly effective from a cancer cell. The physical properties of the therapeutic agents.In this example, nanoparticles are cantilevers change as a result of the binding event. targeted to cancer cells for use in the molecular Researcher scan read this change in real time and imaging of a malignant lesion. Large numbers of provide not only information about the presence and nanoparticles are safely injected into the body and the absence but also the concentration of different preferentially bind to the cancer cell, defining the molecular expressions. anatomical contour of the lesion and making it visible. Nanoscale cantilevers, constructed as part of a larger diagnostic device, can provide rapid and These nanoparticles give us the ability to see sensitive detection of cancer-related molecules. cells and molecules that we otherwise cannot detect through conventional imaging. The ability to pick up what happens in the cell — to monitor therapeutic intervention and to see when a cancer cell is mortally wounded or is actually activated — is critical to the successful diagnosis and treatment of the disease. Nanoparticulate technology can prove to be very useful in cancer therapy allowing for effective and targeted drug delivery by overcoming the many biological, biophysical and biomedical barriers that the body stages against a standard intervention such as the administration of drugs or contrast agents. 7.0 NANOSHELLS Nanoshells have a core of silica and a metallic outer layer. These nanoshells can be injected safely, as demonstrated in animal models.Because of their size, nanoshells will preferentially concentrate in cancer lesion sites. This physical selectivity occurs through a phenomenon called enhanced permeation retention (EPR).Scientists can further decorate the nanoshells to carry molecular conjugates to the antigens that are expressed on the cancer cells themselves or in the tumor microenvironment. This second degree of specificity preferentially links the nanoshells to the tumor and not to neighboring healthy cells. As shown in this example, scientists can then externally supply energy to these cells. The specific properties associated with nanoshells allow the absorption of this directed energy, creating an intense heat that selectively kills the tumor cells. The external energy can be mechanical, radio frequency, optical – the therapeutic action is the same.The result is greater efficacy of the therapeutic treatment and a significantly reduced set of side effects.
- 4. 9.0 CHALLENGES 10.0 CONCLUSION The six major challenge areas of emphasis include: Is proceeding on two main fronts: 9.1 Prevention and Control of Cancer: laboratory-based diagnostics and in vivo • Developing nanoscale devices that can diagnostics and therapeutics? deliver cancer prevention agents • Designing multicomponent anticancer Nanodevices can provide rapid vaccines using nanoscale delivery vehicles and sensitive detection of cancer-related 9.2 Early Detection and Proteomics: molecules by enabling scientists to detect • Creating implantable, biofouling-indifferent molecular changes even when they occur molecular sensors that can detect cancer- only in a small percentage of cells. associated biomarkers that can be collected Nanotechnology is providing a critical for ex vivo analysis or analyzed in situ, with bridge between the physical sciences and the results being transmitted via wireless engineering, on the one hand, and modern technology to the physician molecular biology on the other. Materials • Developing “smart” collection platforms for scientists, for example, are learning the simultaneous mass spectroscopic analysis of principles of the nanoscale world by multiple cancer-associated markers. studying the behavior of biomolecules and 9.3 Imaging Diagnostics: biomolecular assemblies. In return, • Designing “smart” injectable, targeted engineers are creating a host of nanoscale contrast agents that improve the resolution tools that are required to develop the of cancer to the single cell level systems biology models of malignancy • Engineering nanoscale devices capable of needed to better diagnose, treat, and addressing the biological and evolutionary ultimately prevent cancer. In particular, diversity of the multiple cancer cells that biomedical nanotechnology is benefiting make up a tumor within an individual. from the combined efforts of scientists from 9.4 Multifunctional Therapeutics: a wide range of disciplines, in both the • Developing nanoscale devices that integrate physical and biological sciences, who diagnostic and therapeutic functions together are producing many different types • Creating “smart” therapeutic devices that and sizes of nanoscale devices, each with its can control the spatial and temporal release own useful characteristics. of therapeutic agents while monitoring the effectiveness of these agents 11.0 references 9.5 Quality of Life Enhancement in Cancer: • Designing nanoscale devices that can optimally deliver medications for treating Foster I, Kesselman C The Nano: Blueprint for a conditions that may arise over time with Future Nanotechnology Infrastructure. Morgan chronic anticancer therapy, including pain, nausea, loss of appetite, depression, and Kaufmann: San Francisco, CA, 1999. difficulty breathing. www.cs.mu.oz.au 9.6 Interdisciplinary Training: • Coordinating efforts to provide cross- www.gridbus.org training in molecular and systems biology to nanotechnology engineers and in nanotechnology to cancer researchers. • Creating new interdisciplinary coursework/degree programs to train a new generation of researchers skilled in both cancer biology and nanotechnology.