Cancer Drugs Can Be More Effective With The Use Of Magnets
Leading researchers in Australia and Scotland have put together an iron core that
can be used for an anti-cancer drug, so it can be moved to tumours with magnets.
Pharmacists based at the University of Sydney have put together a compound which is formed of iron, gold and platinum so that drugs can be
transported through the body by using magnets.
The findings have been published in the international journal Inorganica Chimica Acta according to The Science Bulletin.
Scientists have been conducting a number of studies over the years into how magnetic nanoparticles could be used for drug delivery.
It is widely believed that the new technique which was put together by Sydney researchers with input from scientists in Scotland, could help to decrease the side-effects of chemotherapy.
This is because side-effects of cancer treatment come to light as the drug attacks both healthy cells and cancerous cells.
The method involves putting a small iron oxide core into an anti-cancer drug, magnets have to be used to help move the drug to the area in which it is required.
The team conducted experiments through growing cancer cells in plates after putting a magnet underneath the plates, the drug only killed the cells that were close to the magnet. The other cells were left unaffected.
Furthermore, the anti-testicular cancer drug, Cisplatin, contains an iron oxide core which is about five nanometres in size.
Dr Nial White, a senior lecturer in the pharmacy department of the Sydney University, who was in charge of the study, made a comparison of the process to the student experiment of using a magnet to pull iron fillings into different patterns.
"When we take regular medication it is difficult to manage where it goes," Dr White stated.
"But this discovery means we can potentially direct exactly where in the human body a drug goes. We can move it to the desired cancer tumour site using powerful magnetic fields. Otherwise, a strong magnet could be implanted into a tumour, and draw the drug into the cancer cells that way."
Furthermore, the iron oxide core was covered in a gold layer before Cisplatin was stuck to the gold coating through the use of strings of polymer.
"We coated this iron oxide core in a protective layer of gold before Cisplatin, a platinum drug that revolutionised the treatment of testicular cancer, was attached to the gold coating using spaghetti-like strings of polymer," Dr White further added.
Many of the side-effects associated with chemotherapy occur because the drugs spread throughout the body, killing healthy organs as well as cancers.
"Ultimately, this technology could greatly reduce or even eliminate the severe side-effects that people associate with chemotherapy such as hair loss, nausea, vomiting, low red blood cells and an increased risk of infection."
by: Brendan Wilde
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