Here are a few quick facts. Glioma is a deadly form of brain cancer which
currently does not have any effective types of treatments, and biodegradable
nano particles were recently used in animals to kill the cancer cells. The
article brings up a good point that
there have been numerous improvements in cancer treatments such as chemotherapy
and radiation but there are so many different types of cancers and these
treatments are not always effective. In regards to Glioma gene mutations gave
made gene therapy difficult to complete. That is until researchers at the
John Hopkins University were able to directly deliver a new
therapy to the Glioma Cells using nano-particles. This method of transportation
is called intracranial convection-enhanced delivery. The nano-particles were
made from polymers and filled with "DNA encoding an enzyme, herpes simplex
virus type 1 thymidine kinase (HSVtk), which turns a compound with little
effect into a potent therapy that kills brain cancer cells"(John Hopkins
Medicine 1) The resulting compound is known as ganciclovir and it killed the
cancer cells 100% of the time.
One of the added bonuses to these findings is that researchers believe these
nano-particles could also deliver
anti-tumor genes and could be used to fight against other systematic cancer
cells. These findings are amazing but they are not being used for humans yet
because more test have to be completed before a clinical trial. Jordan Green,
Ph.D, associate professor of biomedical engineering, neurosurgery and
ophthalmology at Johns Hopkins believes that the nano particles would be
introduced into the human body via surgery on the brain although administering
it systematically could be more effective.
We live in an age where new threats to humans and animals arise all the
time, yet we continue to find innovative and effective ways to treat or cure
whatever comes our way. This is an amazing find which could potentially save
many lives.
That is amazing, it may not be a cure but it's great that they're finding alternate treatments for cancer. I wonder if they can load these nanoparticles with other types of enzymes to fight bacterial infections.
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