1. Author(s) Name(s):Vedhameenakshi.R and Vinotha.S.T
Author Affiliation(s): Velammal College of engineering and technology,
Madurai
E-mail:vedhameena@yahoo.com
MEDICAL NANOTECHNOLOGY
CRITICAL ENDEAVOR IN CANCER
1.0 ABSTRACT:
2.0 INTRODUCTION
The advent of nanotechnology in cancer research
Nanotechnology offers the unprecedented
couldn’t have come at a more opportune time. The vast
and paradigm-changing opportunity to study and
knowledge of cancer genomics and proteomics
interact with normal and cancer cells in real time, at
emerging as a result of the Human Genome Project is
the molecular and cellular scales, and during the
providing critically important details of how cancer
earliest stages of the cancer process. Through the
develops, which in turn creates new opportunities to
concerted development of nanoscale devices or
attack the molecular underpinnings of cancer. However,
devices with nanoscale materials and components,
scientists lack the technological innovations to turn
the NCI Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer
promising molecular discoveries into benefits for
will facilitate their integration within the existing
cancer patients. It is here that nanotechnology can play
cancer research infrastructure. The Alliance will
a pivotal role, providing the technological power and
bring enabling technologies for:
tools that will enable those developing new diagnostics,
therapeutics, and preventives to keep pace with today’s
• Imaging agents and diagnostics that will allow
explosion in knowledge.
clinicians to detect cancer earliest stages
Nanotechnology provides the sized materials that • Systems that will provide real-time assessments
can be synthesized and function in the same general of therapeutic and surgical efficacy for
size range and Biologic structures. Attempts are made accelerating clinical translation
to develop forms of anticancer therapeutics based on • Multifunctional, targeted devices capable of
nanomaterials. Dendritic polymer nanodevices serves as bypassing biological barriers to deliver multiple
a means for the detection of cancer cells, the therapeutic agents directly to cancer cells and
identification of cancer signatures, and the targeted those tissues in the microenvironment that play
delivery of anti-cancer therapeutics (cis-platin, a critical role in the growth and metastasis of
methotrexate, and taxol) and contrast agents to tumor cancer.
cells. Initial studies documented the synthesis and • Agents that can monitor predictive molecular
function of a targeting module, several drug delivery changes and prevent precancerous cells from
components, and two imaging/contrast agents. becoming malignant
Analytical techniques have been developed and used to • Novel methods to manage the symptoms of
confirm the structure of the device. Progress has been cancer that adversely impact quality of life
made on the specifically triggered release of the • Research tools that will enable rapid
therapeutic agent within a tumor using high-energy identification of new targets for clinical
lasers. The work to date has demonstrated the development and predict drug resistance.
feasibility of the nano-device concept in actual cancer
cells in vitro.

2. 3.0 NANOTECHNOLOGY IN CANCER functional building blocks that can be snapped
together and modified to meet the particular
Nanoscale devices are somewhere from one demands of a given clinical situation.
hundred to ten thousand times smaller than human
cells. They are similar in size to large biological 5.0 NANOWIRES
molecules ("biomolecules") such as enzymes and
receptors. As an example, hemoglobin, the In this diagram, nano sized sensing wires
molecule that carries oxygen in red blood cells, is are laid down across a microfluidic channel. These
approximately 5 nanometers in diameter. Nanoscale nanowires by nature have incredible properties of
devices smaller than 50 nanometers can easily enter selectivity and specificity. As particles flow through
most cells, while those smaller than 20 nanometers the microfluidic channel, the nanowire sensors pick
can move out of blood vessels as they circulate up the molecular signatures of these particles and
through the body. can immediately relay this information through a
connection of electrodes to the outside world.
Because of their small size, nanoscale
devices can readily interact with biomolecules on These nanodevices are man-made
both the surface of cells and inside of cells. By constructs made with carbon, silicon and other
gaining access to so many areas of the body, they materials that have the capability to monitor the
have the potential to detect disease and deliver complexity of biological phenomenon and relay the
treatment in ways unimagined before now. And information, as it is monitored, to the medical care
since biological processes, including events that provider.
lead to cancer, occur at the nanoscale at and inside
cells, nanotechnology offers a wealth of tools that They can detect the presence of altered
are providing cancer researchers with new and genes associated with cancer and may help
innovative ways to diagnose and treat cancer. researchers pinpoint the exact location of those
changes
4.0 NANOTECHNOLOGY AND CANCER
THERAPY
Nanoscale devices have the potential to
radically change cancer therapy for the better and to
dramatically increase the number of highly effective
therapeutic agents. Nanoscale constructs can serve
as customizable, targeted drug delivery vehicles
capable of ferrying large doses of chemotherapeutic
agents or therapeutic genes into malignant cells
while sparing healthy cells, greatly reducing or
eliminating the often unpalatable side effects that 6.0 CANTILEVERS
accompany many current cancer therapies.
On an equally unconventional front, Nanoscale cantilevers – microscopic,
efforts are focused on constructing robust “smart” flexible beams resembling a row of diving boards –
nanostructures that Will eventually be capable of are built using semiconductor lithographic
detecting malignant cells in vivo, pinpointing their techniques. These can be coated with molecules
location in the body, killing the cells, and reporting capable of binding specific substrates—DNA
back that their payload has done its job. The complementary to a specific gene sequence, for
operative principles driving these current efforts are example. Such micron-sized devices, comprising
modularity and multifunctionality, i.e., creating many nanometer-sized cantilevers, can detect single
molecules of DNA or protein.

3. As a cancer cell secretes its molecular 8.0 NANOPARTICLES
products, the antibodies coated on the cantilever
fingers selectively bind to these secreted proteins. Nanoscale devices have the potential to
These antibodies have been designed to pick up one radically change cancer therapy for the better and to
or more different, specific molecular expressions dramatically increase the number of highly effective
from a cancer cell. The physical properties of the therapeutic agents.In this example, nanoparticles are
cantilevers change as a result of the binding event. targeted to cancer cells for use in the molecular
Researcher scan read this change in real time and imaging of a malignant lesion. Large numbers of
provide not only information about the presence and nanoparticles are safely injected into the body and
the absence but also the concentration of different preferentially bind to the cancer cell, defining the
molecular expressions. anatomical contour of the lesion and making it
visible.
Nanoscale cantilevers, constructed as part of
a larger diagnostic device, can provide rapid and These nanoparticles give us the ability to see
sensitive detection of cancer-related molecules. cells and molecules that we otherwise cannot detect
through conventional imaging. The ability to pick
up what happens in the cell — to monitor
therapeutic intervention and to see when a cancer
cell is mortally wounded or is actually activated —
is critical to the successful diagnosis and treatment
of the disease.
Nanoparticulate technology can prove to be
very useful in cancer therapy allowing for effective
and targeted drug delivery by overcoming the many
biological, biophysical and biomedical barriers that
the body stages against a standard intervention such
as the administration of drugs or contrast agents.
7.0 NANOSHELLS
Nanoshells have a core of silica and a
metallic outer layer. These nanoshells can be
injected safely, as demonstrated in animal
models.Because of their size, nanoshells will
preferentially concentrate in cancer lesion sites.
This physical selectivity occurs through a
phenomenon called enhanced permeation retention
(EPR).Scientists can further decorate the nanoshells
to carry molecular conjugates to the antigens that
are expressed on the cancer cells themselves or in
the tumor microenvironment. This second degree of
specificity preferentially links the nanoshells to the
tumor and not to neighboring healthy cells. As
shown in this example, scientists can then externally
supply energy to these cells. The specific properties
associated with nanoshells allow the absorption of
this directed energy, creating an intense heat that
selectively kills the tumor cells. The external energy
can be mechanical, radio frequency, optical – the
therapeutic action is the same.The result is greater
efficacy of the therapeutic treatment and a
significantly reduced set of side effects.

4. 9.0 CHALLENGES 10.0 CONCLUSION
The six major challenge areas of emphasis include: Is proceeding on two main fronts:
9.1 Prevention and Control of Cancer: laboratory-based diagnostics and in vivo
• Developing nanoscale devices that can diagnostics and therapeutics?
deliver cancer prevention agents
• Designing multicomponent anticancer Nanodevices can provide rapid
vaccines using nanoscale delivery vehicles and sensitive detection of cancer-related
9.2 Early Detection and Proteomics: molecules by enabling scientists to detect
• Creating implantable, biofouling-indifferent molecular changes even when they occur
molecular sensors that can detect cancer- only in a small percentage of cells.
associated biomarkers that can be collected Nanotechnology is providing a critical
for ex vivo analysis or analyzed in situ, with bridge between the physical sciences and
the results being transmitted via wireless engineering, on the one hand, and modern
technology to the physician molecular biology on the other. Materials
• Developing “smart” collection platforms for scientists, for example, are learning the
simultaneous mass spectroscopic analysis of principles of the nanoscale world by
multiple cancer-associated markers. studying the behavior of biomolecules and
9.3 Imaging Diagnostics: biomolecular assemblies. In return,
• Designing “smart” injectable, targeted engineers are creating a host of nanoscale
contrast agents that improve the resolution tools that are required to develop the
of cancer to the single cell level systems biology models of malignancy
• Engineering nanoscale devices capable of needed to better diagnose, treat, and
addressing the biological and evolutionary ultimately prevent cancer. In particular,
diversity of the multiple cancer cells that biomedical nanotechnology is benefiting
make up a tumor within an individual. from the combined efforts of scientists from
9.4 Multifunctional Therapeutics: a wide range of disciplines, in both the
• Developing nanoscale devices that integrate physical and biological sciences, who
diagnostic and therapeutic functions together are producing many different types
• Creating “smart” therapeutic devices that and sizes of nanoscale devices, each with its
can control the spatial and temporal release own useful characteristics.
of therapeutic agents while monitoring the
effectiveness of these agents 11.0 references
9.5 Quality of Life Enhancement in Cancer:
• Designing nanoscale devices that can
optimally deliver medications for treating Foster I, Kesselman C The Nano: Blueprint for a
conditions that may arise over time with
Future Nanotechnology Infrastructure. Morgan
chronic anticancer therapy, including pain,
nausea, loss of appetite, depression, and Kaufmann: San Francisco, CA, 1999.
difficulty breathing.
www.cs.mu.oz.au
9.6 Interdisciplinary Training:
• Coordinating efforts to provide cross- www.gridbus.org
training in molecular and systems biology to
nanotechnology engineers and in
nanotechnology to cancer researchers.
• Creating new interdisciplinary
coursework/degree programs to train a new
generation of researchers skilled in both
cancer biology and nanotechnology.