[extropy-chat] new [?] anti-angiogenesis drug

[Damien Broderick]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8726644/


LONDON - A smart anti-cancer bomb that acts like a Trojan horse can 
penetrate deep into tumors where it explodes and destroys cancerous cells 
without harming healthy ones, scientists said on Wednesday.

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who devised the 
molecular size bomb tested it in mice with skin or lung cancer. Mice given 
the treatment lived more than three times longer than untreated rodents.

The scientists believe it could have the same effect in humans.
"We're quite hopeful and optimistic that as we translate this into humans 
the results pan out as they have in animals," Professor Ram Sasisekharan, 
of MIT's Biological Engineering Division, said in an interview.

The smart bomb uses nanotechnology which manipulates materials on a 
molecular or atomic scale, to deliver chemotherapy drugs to destroy the 
tumor and anti-angiogenesis agents to block its blood supply.

After the bomb, which is like a balloon within a balloon, is injected into 
the bloodstream it travels to the tumor and burrows deep inside. The outer 
membrane then disintegrates and releases an anti-angiogenesis drug so the 
blood vessels feeding the tumor collapse.

Few side effects
The drug-packed nanocell trapped inside the tumor explodes unleashing the 
chemotherapy drug to kill the cancerous cells. No healthy cells are 
destroyed so debilitating side effects such as hair loss, vomiting, nausea 
and weight loss could be eliminated.

"If you don't really shut the supply lines the tumor cells can escape and 
that is how they metastasize (spread). By killing the supply lines you are 
limiting the leaching of the chemotherapy agents to the healthy cells," 
Sasisekharan said.

Mice that had no treatment died at 20 days.

The smart bomb was more effective against melanoma than lung cancer which 
the scientists, who reported the findings in the science journal Nature, 
said shows the need to change the design of the bomb to attack different 
types of cancer.

"It's an elegant technique for attacking the two compartments of a tumor, 
its vascular system and the cancer cells," Judah Folkman, a cancer expert 
at the Children's Hospital Boston, said in a statement.

Because the smart bomb, which is a new approach to drug delivery, uses 
existing drugs and materials the researchers think it could have a similar 
impact in humans.

They also believe it could be adapted to work for other types of cancer and 
illnesses and to test drug combinations.

"We've been able to show you can definitely decrease toxicity (of the 
drugs) and increase efficacy," said Sasisekharan.
Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited.