NutritionUniversity Of Central Florida Researcher's Nanoparticles Could Someday Lead To End Of Chemotherapy
Nanoparticles specially engineered by
University of Central Florida Assistant Professor J. Manuel Perez and
his colleagues could someday target and destroy tumors, sparing patients
from toxic, whole-body chemotherapies.
Perez and his team used a drug called Taxol for their cell culture
studies, recently published in the journal Small, because it is one of
the most widely used chemotherapeutic drugs. Taxol normally causes many
negative side effects because it travels throughout the body and damages
healthy tissue as well as cancer cells.
The Taxol-carrying nanoparticles engineered in Perez"s laboratory are
modified so they carry the drug only to the cancer cells, allowing
targeted cancer treatment without harming healthy cells. This is
achieved by attaching a vitamin (folic acid) derivative that cancer
cells like to consume in high amounts.
Because the nanoparticles also carry a fluorescent dye and an iron
oxide magnetic core, their locations within the cells and the body can
be seen by optical imaging and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). That
allows a physician to see how the tumor is responding to the treatment.
The nanoparticles also can be engineered without the drug and used as
imaging (contrast) agents for cancer. If there is no cancer, the
biodegradable nanoparticles will not bind to the tissue and will be
eliminated by the liver. The iron oxide core will be utilized as regular
iron in the body.
"What"s unique about our work is that the nanoparticle has a dual
role, as a diagnostic and therapeutic agent in a biodegradable and
biocompatible vehicle," Perez said.
Perez has spent the past five years looking at ways nanotechnology can
be used to help diagnose, image and treat cancer and infectious
diseases. It"s part of the quickly evolving world of nanomedicine.
The process works like this. Cancer cells in the tumor connect with
the engineered nanoparticles via cell receptors that can be regarded as
"doors" or "docking stations." The nanoparticles enter the cell
and release their cargo of iron oxide, fluorescent dye and drugs,
allowing dual imaging and treatment.
"Although the results from the cell cultures are preliminary, they
are very encouraging," Perez said.
A new chemistry called "click chemistry" was utilized to attach the
targeting molecule (folic acid) to the nanoparticles. This chemistry
allows for the easy and specific attachment of molecules to
nanoparticles without unwanted side products. It also allows for the
easy attachment of other molecules to nanoparticles to specifically seek
out particular tumors and other malignancies.
Perez"s study builds on his prior research published in the
prestigious journal Angewandte Chemie Int. Ed. His work has been
partially funded by a National Institutes of Health grant and a
Nanoscience Technology Center start-up fund.
"Our work is an important beginning, because it demonstrates an
avenue for using nanotechnology not only to diagnose but also to treat
cancer, potentially at an early stage," Perez said.
Perez, a Puerto Rico native, joined UCF in 2005. He works at UCF"s
NanoScience Technology Center and Chemistry Department and in the
Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences in the College of Medicine. He has
a Ph.D. from Boston University in Biochemistry and completed
postdoctoral training at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical
School"s teaching and research hospital.
Perez has broad experience in the academic, research and corporate
worlds, having worked at Harvard Medical School, conducted research at
Boston University and worked for the Millipore Corporation in Bedford,
Mass. Since he joined UCF, he has written numerous articles in
prestigious journals such as Nature Materials, Nanoletters, Small, PLOS
One and Angewandte Chemie Int Ed.
University of Central Florida