Nanotubes packing powerful alpha-emitters could target lone cancer cells
alpha-particle radiation," said lead researcher Lon Wilson, professor of chemistry. "Approved therapies that use beta particles are not well-suited for treating cancer at the single-cell level because it takes thousands of beta particles to kill a lone cell. By contrast, cancer cells can be destroyed with just one direct hit from an alpha particle on a cell nucleus."The study's results are available online and slated to appear in an upcoming issue of the journal Small. |
Astatine, like radium and uranium, emits alpha particles via radioactive decay. Alpha particles, which contain two protons and two neutrons, are the most massive particles emitted as radiation. They are about 4,000 times more massive than the electrons emitted by beta decay -- the type of radiation most commonly used to treat cancer.
"It's something like the difference between a cannon shell and a BB," Wilson said. "The extra mass increases the amount of damage alpha particles can inflict on cancer cells." |
"The unique combination of low penetrating power and large particle mass make alpha particles ideal for targeting cancer at the single-cell level," Wilson said. "The difficulty in developing ways to use them to treat cancer has come in finding ways to deliver them quickly and directly to the cancer site."
In prior work, Wilson and colleagues developed techniques to attach antibodies to carbon fullerenes like nanotubes. Antibodies are proteins produced by white blood cells. Each antibody is designed to recognize and bind only with a specific antigen, and doctors have identified a host of cancer-specific antibodies that can be used to kill cancer cells.
In follow-up research, Wilson hopes to test the approach of targeting a single-celled cancer by attaching cancer-specific antibodies to astatine-loaded nanotubes.
One complicating factor in any astatine-based cancer therapy will be the element's short, 7.5-hour half-life. In radioactive decay, the term half-life refers to the time required for any quantity of a substance to decay by half its initial mass. Due to astatine's brief half-life, any treatment must be delivered quickly, before the particles lose their potency.
This research was funded by the Welch Foundation, Rice's Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology, NASA's Johnson Space Center, the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and the National Cancer Institute, a division of the National Institutes of Health. Carbon nanotubes were provided by Carbon Nanotechnologies Inc.
BY JADE BOYD Rice News Staff. Contact: Jade Boyd jadeboyd@rice.edu 713-348-6778 Rice University
Technorati Tags: Nano or Nanotechnology and Nanotech and alpha-emitters or cancer cells and radiation oncologist or Presidential Podcast 09/08/07 and Arc de Triomphe and Nanotube Formation: Inorganic Metal Oxide Nanotubes
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