More developments in cancer treatment

Here are some more new cancer therapies under development. Many of these involve some flavor of nanoparticle (a fancy word for a molecule), and a few involve nanomachines (a molecule that does something more interesting than just sitting there).

• http://www.technologyreview.com/Nanotech/18999/ -- The new nanoengineered system, designed by physician and researcher James Baker and his colleagues at the University of Michigan, contains gold nanoparticles with branching polymers called dendrimers that sprout off the nanoparticle's surface. The particles could be used to launch a multiprong attack against tumors. The dendrimer arms can carry a number of different molecules, including molecules that target cancer cells, fluorescent imaging agents, and drugs that slow down or kill the cells. Once enough of the nanoparticles have gathered inside cancer cells, researchers could kill the tumors by using lasers or infrared light to heat up the gold nestled inside the dendrimers.
• http://www.technologyreview.com/NanoTech/wtr_16690,319,p1.html -- A single treatment of drug-bearing nanoparticles effectively destroys prostate cancer tumors in mice ...the researchers mix together a prostate cancer drug (docetaxel) and polymers that are already FDA-approved... The polymer formed spheres with the drugs trapped within. The researchers then chemically attach pieces of RNA, called aptamers, to the surface of the spheres. The RNA folds into shapes that fit into complementary structures on the surface of prostate-cancer cells... [In placebo groups] almost all the mice died during the experiment. In contrast, all of the mice injected with the targeted nanoparticles survived, and in most cases (five out of seven) the tumors disappeared.
  
• http://www.rsc.org/publishing/journals/CC/article.asp?doi=b800528a -- We present experimental data that demonstrate the potential of synthetic crown ether modified peptide nanostructures to act as selective and efficient chemotherapeutic agents that operate by attacking and destroying cell membranes.
  
• http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-03/uoc--urd033108.php -- Researchers from the Nano Machine Center at the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA have developed a novel type of nanomachine that can capture and store anticancer drugs inside tiny pores and release them into cancer cells in response to light... the device is the first light-powered nanomachine that operates inside a living cell... [reported on] March 31 in the online edition of the nanoscience journal Small.
  
• http://mednews.wustl.edu/news/page/normal/11449.html -- The nanoparticles are extremely tiny beads of an inert, oily compound that can be coated with a wide variety of active substances. In an article published online in The FASEB Journal, the researchers describe a significant reduction of tumor growth in rabbits that were treated with nanoparticles coated with a fungal toxin called fumagillin. Human clinical trials have shown that fumagillin can be an effective cancer treatment in combination with other anticancer drugs... the nanoparticles' surfaces held molecules designed to stick to proteins found primarily on the cells of growing blood vessels. So the nanoparticles latched on to sites of blood vessel proliferation and released their fumagillin load into blood vessel cells. Fumagillin blocks multiplication of blood vessel cells, so it inhibited tumors from expanding their blood supply and slowed their growth.
  
• http://nano.cancer.gov/news_center/2008/feb/nanotech_news_2008-02-15c.asp -- ...Regulators and drug developers are concerned that these delivery systems may prove difficult to manufacture on a consistent basis... A new study from James Baker, Jr., M.D., PI, Cancer Nanotechnology Platform Partnership at the University of Michigan, and colleagues provides data showing that such concerns can be overcome... the investigators present the results of studies designed to show that they could achieve consistent and specific targeting and cell-killing activity across multiple manufacturing batches of a dendrimer-based therapeutic agent.
  
• http://www.physorg.com/news82653370.html -- A team of investigators has designed a nanoscale, polymeric drug delivery vehicle that when loaded with a widely used anticancer agent cures colon cancer in mice with a single dose... To create their drug delivery vehicle, the investigators used a highly branched polymer, known as a dendrimer, that naturally forms nanoparticles with myriad sites for drug loading. In this particular case, the researchers created what they call a bow-tie polyester dendrimer, whose molecular structure somewhat resembles a bow-tie with two discrete halves... On one half of the dendrimer, the researchers attached a second polymer, poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG), in order to make the dendrimer water soluble... Next, the investigators attached the anticancer drug doxorubicin to the other half of the dendrimer using a chemical linkage designed to break when exposed to acidic conditions. Not coincidentally, the inside of tumor cells is acidic, while the bloodstream has a neutral pH. Results presented in this paper show that the resulting drug-dendrimer formulation releases virtually all of its drug within 48 hours in acidic conditions but less than 10 percent of its payload at neutral pH.
• http://www.azonano.com/news.asp?newsID=4087 -- A new type of cancer detector... the simple and inexpensive system, which can be built from off-the-shelf components, can rapidly detect the presence of cancer biomarkers – telltale proteins in body fluids that can signal the presence of malignant tumors – at very low levels... “With this technology, a future scenario might be that you go to the doctor every year for an annual checkup; he draws about 10 cc’s of your blood and runs it through our machine,” said Soman. “The machine is equipped to detect the biomarkers for all the common types of cancer. Half an hour later it produces a list of the biomarkers that it has found. And then either a software program or the physician examines this list to determine whether you have any cancers that need treating.”
  
• http://nanotechwire.com/news.asp?nid=4703 -- There is a growing recognition among cancer researchers that the most accurate methods for detecting early-stage cancer will require the development of sensitive assays that can identify simultaneously multiple biomarkers associated with malignant cells. Now, using sets of nanoparticles designed to aggregate in response to finding more cancer biomarkers, a team of researchers funded by the Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer has developed a multiplexed analytical system that could detect cancer using standard magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
  
• http://www.forbes.com/claytonchristensen/2008/02/22/cancer-nanotechnology-therapies-lead-clayton-in_jw_0222claytonchristensen_inl.html -- A survey of several different developments, but not much deep discussion of any of them. More of a businessman's-eye view of things, not too surprising for Forbes.