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Medicine Technology

First Anti-Cancer Nanoparticle Trial On Humans a Success 260

An anonymous reader writes "Nanoparticles have been able to disable cancerous cells in living human bodies for the first time. The results are perfect so far, killing tumors with no side effects whatsoever. Mark Davis, project leader at CalTech, says that 'it sneaks in, evades the immune system, delivers the siRNA, and the disassembled components exit out.' Truly amazing."
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First Anti-Cancer Nanoparticle Trial On Humans a Success

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  • Targetting (Score:2, Interesting)

    by oldhack ( 1037484 )
    How do they direct them into tumor cells?
    • Re:Targetting (Score:4, Insightful)

      by alexborges ( 313924 ) on Wednesday March 24, 2010 @07:29PM (#31605818)

      They have RNA that attaches to cancerous and only cancerous cells. Of course, there are types of cancer that wont "bind" with this thingies, but supposedly, if I remeber correctly, they are the rarest.

    • The same way that so-called "targeted" painkillers work: they don't.

      Every time I see that damn Nurofen advert I cringe

      In addition, Davis and his colleagues were able to show that the higher the nanoparticle dose administered to the patient, the higher the number of particles found inside the tumor cells—the first example of this kind of dose-dependent response using targeted nanoparticles.

      Either I'm missing something really important or this is the biggest 'Well, Duh!' moment I've had this year

      • They may be admitting in a round-about way that only a small percentage of the nanoparticles make it to the affected cells - therefore they are saying that by pumping the body full of these nanoparticles can have a higher rate of success in targeting the cells. Big 'duh', but possible admission of low accuracy?

        No, I didn't read the article.
    • Re:Targetting (Score:5, Informative)

      by reverseengineer ( 580922 ) on Wednesday March 24, 2010 @07:39PM (#31605922)
      The nanoparticles have a component that attaches to the transferrin receptor on the surface of a cancer cell. Transferrin receptors are highly abundant on cancer cells because iron (what transferrin carries) is needed for cell division processes. Coincidentally, this is a fact I learned the first time this story was posted a few days ago.
  • Not just cancer! (Score:5, Informative)

    by Nihiltres ( 1161891 ) on Wednesday March 24, 2010 @07:30PM (#31605834)

    From comments on TFA, "The Lab" writes: "a science editor would be more capable of pointing out what is really exciting here, which is the ability to stop cells from producing a given protein."

    I think the cancer aspect is great (if it works) but this has potential for curing a whole host of diseases.

    Now we just need to figure out how to change people's DNA on the fly.

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Whoa slow down there. Do you know how long it'll take to patent the treatment for each individual disease?

    • Re:Not just cancer! (Score:5, Interesting)

      by wizardforce ( 1005805 ) on Wednesday March 24, 2010 @07:40PM (#31605936) Journal

      RNAi is an ancient anti-viral defense mechanism found in everything from plants to humans. That said, I agree. Any disease that is caused by the production of a given protein could in principle be treated using a derivative of this RNAi nanoparticle technology.
       

      Now we just need to figure out how to change people's DNA on the fly

      Viruses come close to this, it is just a matter of expanding what they can do (eg. enlarging their payload) and reducing the incidence of side effects like severe immune reactions.

    • by yabos ( 719499 )
      "Now we just need to figure out how to change people's DNA on the fly."

      Apparently all it really takes is a few daily hyposprays to keep the alien DNA at bay and revert your original genome.
    • From comments on TFA, "The Lab" writes: "a science editor would be more capable of pointing out what is really exciting here, which is the ability to stop cells from producing a given protein."

      I think the cancer aspect is great (if it works) but this has potential for curing a whole host of diseases.

      Now we just need to figure out how to change people's DNA on the fly.

      Does this mean that we could make the body START to produce a protein? Like... to fix the human dependency of Vitamin C in our diets?

      I know I mentioned this one time on slashdot before, but it'd be super cool to fix us to being like every other animal on Earth (except Guinea Pigs) and make our own Vitamin C...

    • Done. Take a normal virus, remove its dna, replace it with your replacing fragment, and inject it into the body.
      I’m simplyfiying things here, but that’s it.
      I’ve read about some team doing it, about 5 years ago.

  • Nice if true (Score:3, Insightful)

    by nysus ( 162232 ) on Wednesday March 24, 2010 @07:34PM (#31605866)

    Gizmodo? Call me when a reputable publication reports on this.

  • by Dachannien ( 617929 ) on Wednesday March 24, 2010 @07:36PM (#31605884)

    Nanotechnology, huh?

    And here I had all my money on the Murai vaccine.

  • SWEET SUCCESS (Score:3, Interesting)

    by OrwellianLurker ( 1739950 ) on Wednesday March 24, 2010 @07:37PM (#31605902)
    Can we now laugh at all that silliness that smoking cigarettes leads to death? I can't wait till Camel gets in on the cancer killin' business.
  • Hooray! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Eggplant62 ( 120514 ) on Wednesday March 24, 2010 @07:58PM (#31606094)

    This is so much win, I can hardly stand it. And I never thought I'd see the day when they'd be able to find something to kill this cancer trash. We all live in very interesting times.

  • No cure for cancer? pfft.

  • Its about time we solve the cancer puzzle.

  • The first? Hardly... (Score:3, Informative)

    by QuietLagoon ( 813062 ) on Wednesday March 24, 2010 @09:09PM (#31606558)
    Abraxis BioScience [abraxisbio.com] is a fully integrated biotechnology company dedicated to delivering progressive therapeutics and core technologies that offer patients and medical professionals safer and more effective treatments for cancer and other critical illnesses. The Abraxis portfolio includes the world's first and only protein-based nanoparticle chemotherapeutic compound (ABRAXANE) which is based on its proprietary tumor targeting system known as the nab(TM) Technology platform. From the discovery and research phase to development and commercialization, Abraxis BioScience is committed to rapidly enriching the company's pipeline and accelerating the delivery of breakthrough therapies that will transform the lives of the patients who need them.

    .

    Abraxis has been around for, literally, years.

  • This is awesome... except... they say that they can target any gene and protein. This would make a very useful weapon if you wanted to target a specific genotype. Say a particular family. Wasn't that an episode of ST:TNG?
  • Break out the cuban cigars and pass me a diet Pepsi... sure you can smoke 'em if you got em! Cancer, smancer.... i eat urea formaldehyde foam insulation for breakfast!
  • by NotSoHeavyD3 ( 1400425 ) on Wednesday March 24, 2010 @10:03PM (#31606858) Journal
    Since currently if you have metastasis most of the time it's incurable.(If you're lucky you'll just be a chronic cancer victim.)
  • by Gumby ( 425 ) on Wednesday March 24, 2010 @10:35PM (#31607052)

    http://media.caltech.edu/press_releases/13334 [caltech.edu]

    If you cannot spell Caltech properly - please turn in your nerd card.

  • Smoke 'em if you've got 'em!

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