Researchers improve on nanoparticle design for breast cancer treatment
Scientists continue to create different breast cancer therapies that can complement a prescription to buy Canadian Tamoxifen.
Scientists continue to create different breast cancer therapies that can complement a prescription to buy Canadian Tamoxifen. A multipronged approach can reduce the need for medication. One potential new treatment is the use of gold-filled silicon nanoparticles, developed by researchers from the Methodist Hospital Research Institute.
Gold particles heat up in the presence of infrared light. Previous studies have suggested that it may be possible to attack cancer cells by targeting them with gold nanoparticles and activating them from outside the body with infrared light. However, this approach would need a lot of nanoparticles.
The study team believed they could amplify this reaction by inserting the gold nanoparticles into porous silicon wafers.
In the laboratory, the silicon-encased gold nanoparticles were shown to heat up a solution of water upon infrared activation. Other experiments showed the nanoparticles could hamper the growth of breast cancer cell cultures, as published in the journal Advanced Healthcare Materials.
"We are planning pre-clinical studies to study the technology's impact on whole tissues, breast cancer cells and possibly pancreatic cancer cells," said researcher Haifa Shen, MD, PhD.
More than 228,000 newly diagnosed cases of breast cancer are projected in the U.S. in 2012, according to the National Cancer Institute, a division of the National Institutes of Health.
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