I didn’t know that cancer cells have special receptors to take up folate. This can’t be all cancer cells can it?
Well anyway, by using this, researchers have coated some nanotubes with folate, then introduced them into some cancerous tissues. The cancer cells suck up the nanotubes but the non-cancerous cells don’t take them in. The researchers then use infrared light to heat up the nanotubes, causing them to kill the cancer cells.
They’ve only done it in vitro but it surely looks interesting. BBC story here. I tried to find something on Stanford’s pages but came up dry.
(Thanks Robert.)
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I always find microscopic trojan horses interesting, and in this instance, promisingly good for what is likely to inflict you if you live long enough.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
I thought that was odd too. It sounds like the test was specifically set up such that of all the tissues only the cancer had a folate receptor. Which would make sense, I suppose, for a proof-of-concept test.
This is certainly very interesting, but I don’t see a lot of promise for the technique in vivo. Receptors are just too varied and squirmy (they can actually change shape) to make good targets, as we’re finding out with things like Vioxx.
While it true that some cancer cells take up more folate than normal cells, normal cells do take in folate as well. If you destroy the cancer cells that take up this trojan you will inevitably kill normal cells as well. Sounds eerily similar to the majority of chemotherapy we have today which targets cells which proliferate quickly (cancer) as well as normal tissue, hoping to kill the cancer before you kill the patient. I don’t see how this therapy can spare at least some damage to normal cells. I’ll have to read the paper when I can get my hands on it to see how they address this issue.
This is pretty similar to a lot of work being done. The only difference is that they cook the cell instead of using plain ol’ poison. I think poison would work better than cooking.
Also, getting the infrared light to all the cancer cells will be very tricky, although it helps avoid damage to healthy cells. No illumination – no damage.
TallDave,
While it’s true that receptors make lousy targets, pretty much everything else makes much worse targets.
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