Super-sizing a Cancer Drug Minimizes Side Effects

Summary posted by Meridian on 7/29/2010
Source: MIT News
Author: Anne Trafton

Scientists at the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST) have designed a new version of the drug cisplatin, one of the first chemotherapy drugs given to patients diagnosed with cancer, that spares the kidneys, allowing doctors to use higher doses. Cisplatin, a platinum-containing compound that gums up tumor cells' DNA, does a good job of killing tumor cells, but can also seriously damage the kidneys. The scientists developed a new way to package cisplatin into nanoparticles that are too big to enter the kidneys. According to Shiladitya Sengupta, leader of the research team, "[W]e could give so much more cisplatin than is now possible. You could wipe out the tumor by carpet-bombing it." Sengupta and his team designed a polymer that binds to cisplatin, resulting in a nanoparticle about 100 nanometers long - too large to fit into the kidneys - but still able to reach tumor cells because tumor cells are surrounded by "leaky" blood vessels that have 500-nanometer pores. The teams hopes to begin using the nanoparticles in clinical trials within the next two years. The article can be viewed online at the link below.

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our team contact us site map	Super-sizing a Cancer Drug Minimizes Side Effects Summary posted by Meridian on 7/29/2010 Source: MIT News Author: Anne Trafton Scientists at the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST) have designed a new version of the drug cisplatin, one of the first chemotherapy drugs given to patients diagnosed with cancer, that spares the kidneys, allowing doctors to use higher doses. Cisplatin, a platinum-containing compound that gums up tumor cells' DNA, does a good job of killing tumor cells, but can also seriously damage the kidneys. The scientists developed a new way to package cisplatin into nanoparticles that are too big to enter the kidneys. According to Shiladitya Sengupta, leader of the research team, "[W]e could give so much more cisplatin than is now possible. You could wipe out the tumor by carpet-bombing it." Sengupta and his team designed a polymer that binds to cisplatin, resulting in a nanoparticle about 100 nanometers long - too large to fit into the kidneys - but still able to reach tumor cells because tumor cells are surrounded by "leaky" blood vessels that have 500-nanometer pores. The teams hopes to begin using the nanoparticles in clinical trials within the next two years. The article can be viewed online at the link below. The original article may still be available at web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2010/cisplatin-0728.html As tagged by Meridian Institute: Health And Medical: Devices, Diseases Implications: Human Enhancement, Human Health Risks, Governance, Economic Competitiveness Nanomaterials: Metal Nanoparticle, Naturally Occurring Regions: North America Stakeholders: Government, Academia Minerals And Metals: Metals Related Forums: Health and Medical Metals and Minerals Human Health Risks and Worker Safety Economic Competitiveness Governance print format	NDN Home Subscribe Manage Subscription Search News Archives Cheaper, Better Solar Cell Is Full of Holes -- National Renewable Energy Laboratory (9/7/2010) Scientists at the United States National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have made a breakthrough that will likely lead to lower-cost solar cells that are more efficient than the ones used today. [More] Solar Cell, Heal Thyself -- MIT News (9/7/2010) Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), United States, have created a novel set of self-assembling molecules that can turn sunlight into electricity, with the same molecules being able to repeatedly break themselves down and then reassemble - in essence, having the ability to heal themselves from the highly destructive rays of the sun. [More] U of C Scientist Offers Better Ways to Engineer Earth's Climate to Prevent Dangerous Global Warming -- EurekAlert (9/7/2010) David Keith, a director in the Institute for Sustainable Energy, Environment and Economy and an engineering professor at the University of Calgary, Canada, has suggested two novel geoengineering - engineering of the climate on a global scale to prevent or slow down climate change - approaches in two newly published studies. [More] German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment Publishes Three New Reports on Nanotechnology -- Nanowerk (9/3/2010) The German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) has recently published three new reports on nanotechnology. [More] More News... Learn how to include these headlines on your own website by clicking here. Please email us if you require text-only versions of the daily emails.