UC Davis researchers, working with scientists at Triton BioSystems in Boston, have developed a way to attach nanoscale bioprobes to cancer cells, heat the probes and kill the malignant cells. The system has worked in laboratory mice. It will be tested next in cancer patients.
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Bioprobe:
Each magnetic iron nanoprobe is cloaked in polymers and sugars that render it invisible to the immune system, and equipped with monoclonal antibodies designed to search out and lock onto a cancer cell. More than 10,000 of the bioprobes can fit in the period at the end of this sentence. |
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Trillions of magnetic iron bioprobes are injected into the bloodstream of a laboratory mouse that bears a human tumor. |
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Antibodies on the probes search out and lock onto receptors on the surface of a tumor cell. Thousands of bioprobes can attach to a single cell. |
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Scientists apply an alternating magnetic field to the tumor region. |
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The alternating field forces the magnetic spheres to change polarity thousands of times per second, creating heat. Heat from the probes destroys the cancer cells. |
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Bioprobes cool off as soon as the alternating magnetic field is turned off. The probes degrade and are passed out of the body. |
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