We have all heard about the harsh side effects of chemotherapy that could be so difficult leading to stopping treatment. The reason behind those side effects is that chemotherapy drugs do target not only cancer cells but also the healthy cells of the body. So what if there was a way to solely target cancer cells without damaging normal cells.
Sofie, a Research Scientist at SINTEF’s Department of Biotechnology and Nanomedicine in Trondheim and a Postdoc at the Department of Physics at Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), is trying to achieve this by using nanoparticles and bubbles.
Her talk at the TEDx event was about her research on bubbly nanoparticles containing a chemotherapeutic drug, that when combined with ultrasound radiation at the target tissue, it creates a local force that disperses the nanoparticles to a broader area of cancer cells without affecting the rest of the body, which means fewer side effects and better treatment. The drug-loaded nanoparticles can be altered to when and where it will be degraded to evacuate the drug inside the cancer cells leading to its death.
This technology is promising also for brain diseases as nanoparticles can pass the blood-brain barrier into the brain cells leading to the possibility of using it with drugs for known diseases with no cure yet as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
Other research on the use of ultrasound with nanoparticles and the use of nanoparticles in cancer are also included.
Sources: Youtube, ScienceDirect, Hindawi
