Over 100 years after the birth of Albert Einstein on March 14, 1879 Breast Cancer has a new friend Nanoparticles

March 14, 2011 By Robert Graham Reporting ---- Houston Texas at MD Anderson Cancer Research Center -----< Business--Wire>
Over 100 years after the birth of Albert Einstein on March 14, 1879 Breast Cancer has a new friend Nanoparticles.

Nanoparticles has the potential to enable breast cancer research and improve molecular imaging, early detection, prevention, and treatment of breast cancer.

GenConnect scientist say photoluminescent nanoparticles will allow oncologists to discriminate between cancerous cells and healthy cells. Proteomics and bioinformatics will enable researchers to identify markers of Breast cancer susceptibility and precancerous lesions

Numerous investigations have shown that both tissue and cell distribution profiles of anticancer drugs can be controlled by their entrapment in submicronic colloidal systems (nanoparticles). The rationale behind this approach is to increase antitumor efficacy, while reducing systemic side-effects. This review provides an update of tumor targeting with conventional or long-circulating nanoparticles. The in vivo fate of these systems, after intravascular or tumoral administration, is discussed, as well as the mechanism involved in tumor regression. Nanoparticles are also of benefit for the selective delivery of oligonucleotides to tumor cells. Moreover, certain types of nanoparticles showed some interesting capacity to reverse MDR resistance, which is a major problem in chemotherapy. The first experiments, aiming to decorate nanoparticles with molecular ligand for active targeting of cancerous cells

Miniaturization will allow the tools for many different tests to be situated together on the same small device. Researchers hope that nanotechnology will allow them to run many diagnostic tests simultaneously.

Nanoparticles nanoshells is use to antibodies that recognize cancer cells. GenConnect scientist envision letting these nanoshells seek out their cancerous targets, then applying near-infrared light. In laboratory cultures, the heat generated by the light-absorbing nanoshells can successfully killed breast cancer tumor cells while leaving neighboring cells intact.

A nanometer is a billionth of a meter. It's difficult to imagine anything so small, but think of something only 1/80,000 the width of a human hair. Ten hydrogen atoms could be laid side-by-side in a single nanometer.
GenConnect minuscule molecule that will be used to detect breast cancer is a quantum dot. Quantum dots are tiny crystals that glow when they are stimulated by ultraviolet light. The wavelength, or color, of the light depends on the size of the crystal. Latex beads filled with these crystals can be designed to bind to specific DNA sequences.

GenConnect scientists refer to these methods as the top-down approach and the bottom-up approach. The top-down approach involves molding or etching materials into smaller components. This approach has traditionally been used in making parts for computers and electronics. The bottom-up approach involves assembling structures atom-by-atom or molecule-by-molecule, and may prove useful in manufacturing devices used in medicine. Get ready breast cancer science and information technology has breast cancer in the cross hairs