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Abracadabra! Nanoparticles Make Cancer Cells Rise

Eric Bland, Discovery News

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Rising to the Surface

July 31, 2008 -- By binding magnetic nanoparticles to human ovarian cancer cells, researchers at Georgia Tech can make the cancerous cells rise to the skin surface by simply passing a magnet over them.

The research could be used to identify and remove not only against ovarian cancer cells, but also other cancer cells, bacteria and viruses.

"In principle this technique could be applied to any pathogen that is found in the blood stream," said John McDonald, a scientist at Georgia Tech and coauthor of the paper that appeared in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

It may seem like magic, but the trick lies in the nanoparticles. The particles are ten nanometers or less in size and have traces of cobalt inside a ball of magnetite. Those metallic pieces are attached to a protein that only binds to a specific protein found on the surface of ovarian cancer cells.

The beauty of the experiment, according to McDonald, is the nanoparticles' affinity for ovarian cancer cells.

"The strength of the binding has to be very strong so when you pull the particles with a magnet they don't just fall off," said McDonald.

The researchers injected the nanoparticles, which also contained a colored dye, into mice with human ovarian cancer cells. The nanoparticles circulated though the mouse's body and attached themselves to the cancer cells.

Then the researchers applied a magnet to the stomach of the mice and the cells rose and colored the skin of the mice.

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Abracadabra! Nanoparticles Make Cancer Cells Rise

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