Nanoparticles increasing the odds of cancer survival
by Rodney Magazinovic
With the incidence of skin cancer ever increasing in Australia, scientifically engineered nanoparticles – so small they are invisible to the human eye – are being developed in an effort to increase the rate of successful treatment.
It’s hard to imagine how something so small as a nanoparticle – typically less than 50 nanometres (nm) in size or approximately one thousandth the width of a human hair – could be manufactured so precisely.
But that’s just what Professor Peter Majewski, BioInnovation SA Bioscience Fellow at the Ian Wark Research Institute, and his team are investigating.
While current techniques can identify and treat primary tumours with an almost 100 per cent success rate, the treatment success rate drops to about 30 per cent when secondary cancers, or metastasis, form.
"Tracing very early metastasis is difficult because they are so small," Prof Majewski says. "However, early diagnosis is crucial for a successful treatment."
His team, with research associate Dr Benjamin Thierry, is collaborating with researchers from the medical oncology unit at the Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH) to develop hybrid materials consisting of nanoparticles and antibodies that will help identify hard to detect cancerous tumours.
The preparation of nanoparticles is a multi-layered process. Individual single particles are coated with layers of chemicals that allow them to dock to organic molecules such as antibodies, forming a hybrid material. The antibodies, which in turn are able to attach themselves to the secondary cancers, have already been developed by the RAH researchers.
In another joint research project, Prof Majewski’s team is collaborating with the Sydney Cancer Centre’s Melanoma Centre, using specially modified nanoparticles for imaging of the lymph nodes (through which the metastisis are transported) using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). As these nanoparticles become magnetic when MRI is used, once they have attached themselves to the metastisis, it can be precisely located. This technique allows for tumours down to less than 1mm in size to be detected.
"This active targeting is a very significant development in the world of nanotechnology and medicine," Prof Peter Majewski says, adding that while using nanoparticles for cancer diagnosis is a relatively new scientific field, significant applications for the particles are being discovered all the time.