Anticancer Drugs And Its Effects On Cancer Cells

Nanomedicine has been tested to try and fight cancer cells and destroy them by the University of California, Los Angeles(UCLA). The nanomedicine has improved unmodified medicine including targeting efficiency. Nanomedicine delivers a “Double whammy” as it is put by UCLA. Nanomedicine has the strength to possibly overcome some of the most severe diseases especially cancer because once cancer is able to be extinguished the human race could become nearly invulnerable. Cancer is one of the most severe cases of a disease. Cancer could kill thousands and diagnose way more people.

In this study, published in the scientific journal Advanced Materials, Quanyin Hu has created a better way to administer doxorubicin and TRAIL, two anticancer drugs. By using platelets, part of the blood that aids in clotting, to mask the foreign drugs from the body's defense system, these bioengineers caused the drugs to stay in the body for a longer amount of time when compared to the amount of time non-platelet covered anticancer drugs stayed in the body. The results of this experiment showed that platelet covered anticancer drugs stayed in the body longer than the same anticancer drugs surrounded by a nano-gel system. In this experiment, the dependent variable was the amount of time the anticancer drugs stayed in the body of a mouse.

Nanotherapy is a novel therapy that depends on nanotechnology, nanomaterial and nanoparticles to improve certain drug properties (e.g. solubility, stability, half-lives, transportation, etc.) used to treat diseases (Harris et al. 2006). Moreover, the size of submicron sized molecular devices and nanoparticles are limited from 5-500nm in at least one dimension. The size of the drug is between 10-100nm in diameter, however, 20 fold in co-delivery over free CDDP drug indicated that the

Nanoparticles are materials with overall dimensions less then one hundred nanometers, they are also known as zero-dimensional materials. These particles differ from other nanomaterials because all their dimensions are in nanoscale, apposed to one dimensional or two-dimensional nanomaterials which have one or two dimensions greater then a nanoscale. Nanoparticles have amazing applications in medicine pushing the boundaries of what we can accomplish in areas like medical imaging and drug and gene delivery. Nanoparticles are replacing conventional organic dyes used to dye tissue and cells for imagining with quantum dots. In drug delivery, they are using natural nano-polymers delivery methods to increase the solubility of drugs and prolong the

Lastly, Nanotechnology can help doctors find cancer cells in a patient and they have the opportunity to give early medications to the patients diagnosed with cancer. Currently, doctors can use Nanotechnology to detect the minuscule cancer tumors present in millimeters of saliva and blood. As illustrated in the research done by the Stanford University, “We can now detect just a few cancer-associated molecules or circulating tumor cells in the body in just a few milliliters of blood or saliva, or map the boundaries of a brain tumor within millimeters to assess its response to therapy or to plan a surgery,” Rajiv Gambhir said. “We’ve specially designed nanoparticles that can send back a massively amplified, whopping signal when they bind to cancer cells in the colon, and we’re working on ways to trigger the self-assembly of nanoparticles when they enter a cancer cell. The field has advanced tremendously in the past 10 to 15 years” (Gambhir). Therefore, if doctors can detect cancer tumors or cancer cells in the body, then they can offer required diagnostics and early treatment to the patient before the tumor develops and starts to multiply. As shown above, cancer can be detected when it is at an early stage

The article “Nanoparticle vaccines”, by Liang Zhao et al., seeks to condense information regarding nanotechnology and its role in vaccine development. The authors support the use of nanoparticles when developing vaccines, and

Nanotechnology involves the handling of functional systems at a very small scale (Bamrungsap, Zhao, Chen, Wang, Fu, Tan & Li, 2012). When talking about nanotechnology in relation to health, it can commonly be referred to as nanomedicine. Nanotechnology, specifically nanoparticles, have had a recent uprising in research studies. Fortunately new studies are proving to show how nanoparticles can aid in the diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer. The correlation between both lung cancer and nanotechnology in modern day medicine, is believed to be very beneficial to patients and doctors

I first felt thrilled in pursuing scientific research, when I learned about critical aspect of materials chemistry in the elucidation of nanoparticles for drug delivery systems in organic chemistry with Prof. Sunasee. Since then, I host a passion for academic and research traing designed to prepare me for graduate studies in the development of nanomaterials and nanotechnologies for healthcare. My primary research interests are in the fields of nanotechnology and materials chemistry for drug therapy and cancer biology (of the p53 and pro-apoptotic signal transduction pathways).

Nanotechnology, the manipulation of matter on the molecular scale, can be applied to numerous scientific fields, such as medicine, surface chemistry, micro fabrication, and organic chemistry (Destito, Schneemann & Manchester, 2009). In general, these small-sized particles are used to improve the functioning of commercial products and, in the subsection of nanomedicine, are used for therapeutics, tumor targeting, and vaccines (Crisci, Bárcena & Montoya, 2012). For example, the use of molecular nanotechnology improves vehicle fuel cells and catalytic converters, helps filter wastewater, and strengthens commercial products, such as bowling balls and glue. (Doll et. al., 2012). Harisinghani, through multiple experiments, also discovered that nanoparticles such as iron oxide can be used to image lymph nodes in patients with prostate cancer (Destito et. al., 2009). However, even with their vast range of applications, nanotechnology continues to raise issues on its toxicity and negative impact on the environment (Destito et. al., 2009).

In the 21st century, human and technologies are inseparable. In past decades, there has been an astonishing amount of development in modern world’s technology. Nanotechnology is one of them. This technology is based on nano-scale and it can be used in many different areas because of its small sizes. (Metchis). However, there is a huge amount of uncertainties on the hazards of nanomaterial due to lack of research in this field in real world applications. There is a lot of things that need to be study on this technology. For this technology to be considered fully developed there is an immediate need for a balance between a free and unregulated market with some involvement from the government because both systems have its own strengths and weaknesses that will be discussed further.

The encapsulation and site-directed mechanisms can also be translated and utilized in bioimaging – the field of study concerned with developing imaging techniques and devices that are used to obtain anatomical images and provide tissue analysis. Medical professionals are always looking for answers as to what is going on inside one’s body. Nanoparticles can serve as excellent scaffolds in this area of research because they have such a high surface area- to- volume ratio [9]. Ferritin, in particular, has been modified in different ways, mainly using the techniques described earlier, to further advancements in this field.

Nanotechnology is "the design, characterisation, production and application of structure, devices or systems by controlled manipulation of size and shape at the nanoscale." (Nanomed, 2005) This should produce a structure or device with at least one new or superior characteristic. The nanoscale is less than 100nm. CNTs have shown a great deal of potential use as nano carriers for delivering anti cancer drugs directly to the sight of action. However, CNTs must be functionalized, as pure CNTs are difficult to incorporate into biological structures due to their insolubility and their tendency to bundle up. There are two main ways to functionalize CNTs yet the best method is by oxidation leading to carboxyl based couplings. The tube caps openings are created and holes in the side wall form by process of oxidation involving strong acids. These carboxylic group allow covalent coupling with other molecules by amide or ester bonds (see figure 2.1) as a result, CNTs can be conjugated with anti cancer drugs. It is a benefit to functionalize CNTs as "functionalized CNTs have been shown in many studies to be able to cross cell membranes" (Pantarotte et al.) this means that CNTs can now be used to deliver anti cancer drugs into direct cells.

Nanoscience is the study of objects measured in nanometers. To give a better perspective of size, one nanometer is one-billionth of a meter, or about eighty thousand times smaller than the diameter of a single human hair. A particular application of nano-materials in nature is the use of nano-finger tips which allow geckos to walk on walls. The gecko adhesive system incorporates one million foot hairs or setae in on each finger. One hair or seta contains a thousand of spatula tips which allow the geckos to attach to the wall. Synthetic nano-materials can be produced which exhibit strong adhesion effects similar to the gecko nano-finger tips. There are already many nano-tech products on the market which utilize synthetic nano-materials.

This why it's important to learn and stay updated of the new things around us or we will be left behind. This technology is the closest thing to cure cancer, this is a big step in the right direction. Nanotechnology is the future and will be the next big thing.

I spent a month looking up a fascinating idea for my science project but it was useless. Luckily, on my birthday, my friend gave me a book called “Nanotechnology” which was written by Truong Van Tan- a Phd who works for Australia Department of Defense. Each chapter was about a different aspect of how nanotechnology had been applied in our lives. Among these, the fifth chapter: Nanomaterial for Medical application, attracted me