Nano Platforms in Cancer

Therapy
Introduction:
Biological processes, including events necessary
for life and those that lead to cancer, occur at the
Nano scale.
Nanotechnology can provide rapid and sensitive
detection of cancer-related molecules, enabling
scientists to detect molecular changes even when
they occur only in a small percentage of cells.
Nanotechnology is being applied to cancer in two
broad areas:
1. The development of Nano vectors, such as
nanoparticles, which can be loaded with drugs or
imaging agents and then targeted to tumours;
2. High-throughput Nano sensor devices for detecting
the biological signatures of cancer.
Combined, such technologies could lead to earlier
diagnosis and better treatment for patients with
cancer.

Diagnosis of cancer:
Imaging:
Two things are necessary for imaging:

1. Something that specifically identifies a

cancerous cell.
2. Something that enables it to be seen.
These requirements can be achieved through
nanotechnology.
Antibodies that identify specific receptors found to
be overexpressed in cancerous cells can be coated
on to nanoparticles such as metal oxides which
produce a high contrast signal on Magnetic
Resonance Images (MRI) or Computed Tomography
(CT) scans.
Once inside the body, the antibodies on these
nanoparticles will bind selectively to cancerous
cells, effectively lighting them up for the scanner.
Similarly, gold particles could be used to enhance
light scattering for endoscopic techniques like
colonoscopies.
Nanotechnology will enable the visualization of
molecular markers that identify specific stages and
types of cancers, allowing doctors to see cells and
molecules undetectable through conventional
imaging.

Screening:
Screening for biomarkers in tissues and fluids for
diagnosis will also be enhanced and potentially
revolutionized by nanotechnology.
Individual cancers differ from each other and from
normal cells by changes in the expression and
distribution of tens to hundreds of molecules.

 As therapeutics advance, it may require the

simultaneous detection of several biomarkers to
identify a cancer for treatment selection.
Nanoparticles such as quantum dots, which emit
light of different colors depending on their size,
could enable the simultaneous detection of
multiple markers.
The photoluminescence signals from antibodycoated quantum dots could be used to screen for
certain types of cancer.
Different colored quantum dots would be attached
to antibodies for cancer biomarkers to allow
oncologists to discriminate cancerous and healthy
cells by the spectrum of light they see.

Treatment of Cancer:
Cancer therapies are currently limited to surgery,
radiation, and chemotherapy.
All three methods risk damage to normal tissues or
incomplete eradication of the cancer.
Nanotechnology offers the means to aim therapies
directly and selectively at cancerous cells.

Nanocarriers:
Nanoparticles can be used as drug carriers for
chemotherapeutics to deliver medication directly
to the tumor while sparing healthy tissue.
Nano carriers have several advantages over
conventional chemotherapy. They can:

1. Protect drugs from being degraded in the body

before they reach their target
2. Enhance the absorption of drugs into tumours
and into the cancerous cells themselves.
3. Allow for better control over the timing and
distribution of drugs to the tissue, making it
easier for oncologists to assess how well they
work.
4. Prevent drugs from interacting with normal cells,
thus avoiding side effects.

Passive Targeting:
There are now several Nano carrier-based drugs on
the market, which rely on passive targeting
through a process known as "enhanced
permeability and retention.
Because of their size and surface properties,
certain nanoparticles can escape through blood
vessel walls into tissues.
In addition, tumors tend to have leaky blood
vessels and defective lymphatic drainage, causing
nanoparticles to accumulate in them, thereby
concentrating the attached cytotoxic drug where
it's needed, protecting healthy tissue and greatly
reducing adverse side effects.

Active Targeting:
Some nanoparticles will actively target drugs to
cancerous cells, based on the molecules that they
express on their cell surface.

 Molecules that bind particular cellular receptors

can be attached to a nanoparticle to actively target
cells expressing the receptor.
Active targeting can even be used to bring drugs
into the cancerous cell, by inducing the cell to
absorb the nanocarrier.
Active targeting can be combined with passive
targeting to further reduce the interaction of
carried drugs with healthy tissue

Destruction from within:

Nanoshells-is being used in the laboratory to
thermally destroy tumors from the inside.
Nanoshells can be designed to absorb light of
different frequencies, generating heat
(hyperthermia).
Once the cancer cells take up the nanoshells (via
active targeting), near-infrared light is then applied
which is absorbed by the nanoshells, creating an
intense heat inside the tumor that selectively kills
tumor cells without disturbing neighboring healthy
cells.
Similarly, new targeted magnetic nanoparticles are
in development that will both be visible through
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and can also
destroy cells by hyperthermia.

Examples:
Targeted chemotherapy that delivers a tumorkilling agent called tumor necrosis factor alpha
(TNF) to cancer tumors. TNF is attached to a gold

nanoparticle along with Thiol-derivatized

polyethylene glycol (PEG-THIOL), which hides the
TNF bearing nanoparticle from the immune system.
Graphene strips are used to deliver different drugs
to specific regions of cancer cells. When the
graphene strip reaches the cancer cell one drug
seperates from the graphene and attacks the cell
membrane while the graphene strip enters the cell
and delivers the second drug to the cell nucleus.
Researchers at UCLA have developed a method to
fight pancreatic cancer using two different
nanoparticles. The first nanoparticle removes
material on the exterior of the cancer cells that
block the entry of chemotherapy drugs, the second
nanoparticle carries the chemotherapy drug.
Testing this method on laboratory mice showed
significantly faster shrinkage of the tumors than
other methods.
Researchers are testing the use of chemotherapy
drugs attached to nanodiamonds to treat brain
tumors. The nanodiamond/chemotherapy drug
combination stays in the tumor longer than the
chemotherapy drug by itself, which should increase
the effectiveness.
Researchers are also testing the use of
chemotherapy drugs attached to nanodiamonds to
treat leukemia. It turns out that leukemia cancer
cells can pump chemotherapy drugs out of the
cancer cell, limiting the effectiveness of the drug.
The cancer cell cannot pump the nanodiamond
out, so attaching the drug molecules to

nanodiamonds results in the drug staying in the

cancer cell longer.
Researchers have demonstrated a nanoparticle
that kills lymphoma cancer cells. They use a
nanoparticle which looks like HDL cholesterol, but
with a gold nanoparticle at it's core. When this
nanoparticle attaches to a lymphoma cell it blocks
the cancer cell from attaching to real HLD
cholesterol, starving the cancer cell