HER2 Support Group Forums - Nano drugs can kill cancer cells (ceramide encapsulated)

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Nano drugs can kill cancer cells (ceramide encapsulated)

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27 Dec 2008, 1222 hrs IST, IANS
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</td> </tr> <tr> <td align="left" valign="top">  WASHINGTON: Nano particles that are 5,000 times as small as a human hair, carrying an experimental anti-cancer agent, kill human melanoma and drug-resistant breast cancer cells growing in lab cultures.

The discovery could lead to the development of a new generation of anti-cancer drugs that are safer and more effective than conventional chemotherapy agents, researchers suggested.

Mark Kester, James Adair and colleagues at Penn State's Hershey Medical Centre and University Park campus point out that certain nanoparticles have shown promise as drug delivery vehicles.

However, many of these particles will not dissolve in body fluids and are toxic to cells, making them unsuitable for drug delivery in humans. Although promising as an anti-cancer agent, ceramide also is insoluble in the blood stream making delivery to cancer cells difficult.

The scientists report a potential solution with development of calcium phosphate nanocomposite particles (CPNPs). The particles are soluble and with ceramide encapsulated with the calcium phosphate, effectively make ceramide soluble, said a Penn State release.

With ceramide encapsulated inside, the CPNPs killed 95 percent of human melanoma cells and were "highly effective" against human breast cancer cells that are normally resistant to anticancer drugs, the researchers say.

The study was published in the December issue of Nano Letters.

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Rich, thanks for the post! This is exciting! I am a patient at Penn State Hershey Med. I'll ask my onc at my January appointment about this. Naturally, the main question is how long until this is tweaked for human use? It is so difficult to be patient!

Ha! When I posted this I was wondering if there would be anyone who could do just that. Please update this posting with whatever you find out. And yes, hard to find the virtue of patience in this arena. Go light the fire under their behinds;)

Penn State Hershey Med Onc. response

For those of you who are interested in the nano particle delivery of chemo research underway at Penn State Hershey Med. here is what my onocologist had to say regarding same. Firstly, she is familiar with Mark Kester at PSU. She believes the team of Kester/Adair are a long way from even a phase I trial. She did promise to keep me updated, and she said that many researchers are in hot pursuit of the nano particles theory for delivering targeted chemo. She was very positive in her opinion of the research so........fingers crossed!

Thanks for looking into this.