Nanoparticle Drug Delivery System Used To Target Cancer

Researchers are working on a new cancer treatment that will allow doctors to directly target tumors in chemotherapy. The new treatment consists of a nanoparticle drug delivery system that uses laser light. The treatment makes it easier to release cancer drugs directly into tumors, which will allow chemotherapy to be more effective. The research on nanoparticles is being performed as an experimental cancer treatment at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). The study’s nanoparticles are fluorescent, which allows doctors to track them throughout the treatment process.

The particles carry an anti-cancer drug and release the drug inside of the tumor. Fuyu Tamanoi, professor of microbiology, immunology, and molecular genetics at UCLA, had a leading role in the study. “This is something that I am really passionate about, actually.  What we are trying to accomplish is something called on-demand or on-command release of anti-cancer drugs,” Tamanoi said. He also claimed that another benefit of the new treatment is that patients don’t have negative side effects such as nausea, fatigue, or hair loss, since no healthy tissue is destroyed in the process.

The nanoparticle drug delivery technique was created by Jeffrey Zink, a UCLA professor of chemistry and biochemistry. The drug delivery technique was covered extensively in the journal Small. Zink said that the treatment has been extremely successful in smaller animals. “We can shrink tumors in mice. In fact, the standard joke among us is that if you are a mouse and had a tumorous cancer we could cure you, because in the mouse models, at least, these have been extremely successful,” said Zink.