Close Menu
  • News
  • Medical
  • Technology
  • Nanomaterials
  • Research
  • Blog
    • Nasiol.com
  • Contact
    • Tech7685@gmail.com
What's Hot

Single-layer waveguide display uses achromatic metagratings for more compact augmented reality eyewear

June 5, 2025

2D hybrid material integrates graphene and silica glass for next-generation electronics

June 4, 2025

Zeolite nanopore model links crystal size to metal cluster migration and catalyst performance

June 4, 2025
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
Nanotech – Nanomaterials | Medical | Research | News Stories Updated Daily Nanotech – Nanomaterials | Medical | Research | News Stories Updated Daily
  • News
  • Medical
  • Technology
  • Nanomaterials
  • Research
  • Blog
    • Nasiol.com
  • Contact
    • Tech7685@gmail.com
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
Nanotech – Nanomaterials | Medical | Research | News Stories Updated Daily Nanotech – Nanomaterials | Medical | Research | News Stories Updated Daily
Home»News»Researchers develop a nanoparticle that can penetrate the blood-brain barrier
News

Researchers develop a nanoparticle that can penetrate the blood-brain barrier

May 12, 2024No Comments4 Mins Read
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Telegram LinkedIn Tumblr WhatsApp Email
Share
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Telegram Email
blood-brain barrier
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Researchers at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine have developed a nanoparticle that can penetrate the blood-brain barrier. Their goal is to kill primary breast cancer tumors and brain metastases in one treatment, and their research shows the method can shrink breast and brain tumors in laboratory studies.

Brain metastases, as these secondary tumors are called, most commonly arise from solid tumors like breast, lung and colon cancer and are often associated with a poor prognosis. When cancer breaches the brain, it can be difficult for treatment to follow, in part because of the blood-brain barrier, a near-impenetrable membrane that separates the brain from the rest of the body.

The Sylvester team’s nanoparticle may one day be used to treat the metastases with the added benefit of treating the primary tumor at the same time, according to Shanta Dhar, Ph.D., an associate professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and assistant director of Technology and Innovation at Sylvester, who led the study. She is the senior author of a paper published May 6 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

By loading the particle with two prodrugs that target mitochondria, the energy production center of the cell, the researchers showed that their method could shrink breast and brain tumors in preclinical studies.

“I always say nanomedicine is the future, but of course we have already been in that future,” said Dhar, referring to commercially available COVID-19 vaccines, which use nanoparticles in their formulation. “Nanomedicine is definitely also the future for cancer therapeutics.”

See also  Researchers develop a roadmap for the development of information technology based on 2D materials

The new method uses a nanoparticle made of a biodegradable polymer, previously developed by Dhar’s team, coupled with two drugs also developed in her lab that take aim at cancer’s energy sources. Because cancer cells often have a different form of metabolism than healthy cells, stifling their metabolism can be an effective way to kill tumors without harming other tissues.

One of these drugs is a modified version of a classic chemotherapy drug, cisplatin, which kills cancer cells by damaging DNA in rapidly growing cells, effectively halting their growth. But tumor cells can repair their DNA, sometimes leading to cisplatin resistance.

Dhar’s team modified the drug to shift its target from nuclear DNA, the DNA that makes up our chromosomes and genome, to mitochondrial DNA. Mitochondria are our cells’ energy sources and contain their own, much smaller genomes—and, importantly for cancer therapeutic purposes, they don’t have the same DNA-repair machinery that our larger genomes do.

Because cancer cells can switch between different energy sources to sustain their growth and proliferation, the researchers combined their modified cisplatin, which they call Platin-M and attacks the energy-generating process known as oxidative phosphorylation, with another drug they developed, Mito-DCA, that specifically targets a mitochondrial protein known as a kinase and inhibits glycolysis, a different kind of energy generation.

Dhar said it was a long route to develop a nanoparticle that can access the brain. She has been working on nanoparticles for her whole independent career, and in a previous project studying different forms of polymers, the researchers noticed that a small fraction of some of these nanoparticles reached the brain in preclinical studies. By honing those polymers further, Dhar’s team developed a nanoparticle that can cross both the blood-brain barrier and the outer membrane of mitochondria.

See also  What Are Boron Nitride Nanotubes?

“There have been a lot of ups and downs to figuring this out, and we’re still working to understand the mechanism by which these particles cross the blood-brain barrier,” Dhar said.

The team then tested the specialized drug-loaded nanoparticle in preclinical studies and found that they work to shrink both breast tumors and breast cancer cells that were seeded in the brain to form tumors there. The nanoparticle-drug combination also appeared to be nontoxic and significantly extended survival in lab studies.

Next, the team wants to test their method in the lab to replicate human brain metastases more closely, perhaps even using patient-derived cancer cells. They also want to test the drug in laboratory models of glioblastoma, a particularly aggressive brain cancer.

“I’m really interested in polymer chemistry, and using that toward medical purposes really fascinates me,” said Akash Ashokan, a University of Miami doctoral student working in Dhar’s lab and co-first author on the study along with doctoral student Shrita Sarkar. “It’s great to see that applied toward cancer therapeutics.”

Provided by
University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine



Source link

Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email

Related Posts

Single-layer waveguide display uses achromatic metagratings for more compact augmented reality eyewear

June 5, 2025

2D hybrid material integrates graphene and silica glass for next-generation electronics

June 4, 2025

Zeolite nanopore model links crystal size to metal cluster migration and catalyst performance

June 4, 2025

Spontaneous symmetry breaking in electron systems proves elusive

June 3, 2025

Improving Crop Tolerance to Drought and Heat Using Nanomaterials

June 3, 2025

Crystal-modifying agent piracetam provides scalable strategy for high-efficiency all-perovskite tandem solar cells

June 3, 2025

Comments are closed.

Top Articles
News

New ways to make ordered wafer-scale chiral carbon nanotube architectures

News

Gold nanoparticles found to reverse brain deficits in multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s

News

Is Molybdenum Disulfide (MoS2) a Serious Rival to Graphene?

Editors Picks

Single-layer waveguide display uses achromatic metagratings for more compact augmented reality eyewear

June 5, 2025

2D hybrid material integrates graphene and silica glass for next-generation electronics

June 4, 2025

Zeolite nanopore model links crystal size to metal cluster migration and catalyst performance

June 4, 2025

Spontaneous symmetry breaking in electron systems proves elusive

June 3, 2025
About Us
About Us

Your go-to source for the latest nanotechnology breakthroughs. Explore innovations, applications, and implications shaping the future at the molecular level. Stay informed, embrace the nano-revolution.

We're accepting new partnerships right now.

Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram Pinterest
Our Picks

Study shows neutrons can bind to quantum dots

April 13, 2024

Nanoscale wrinkles on films can display or conceal vibrant color patterns

April 4, 2025

Pioneering beyond-silicon technology via residue-free field effect transistors

September 12, 2023

Subscribe to Updates

Get the latest creative Nano Tech news from Elnano.com

© 2025 Elnano.com - All rights reserved.
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.

Cleantalk Pixel