by
Loren Bonner, DOTmed News Online Editor | April 24, 2012
From the April 2012 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
Nanoparticles as imaging agents
In addition to imaging and treating Glioblastoma brain tumors, the research team at Stanford University is currently working with the FDA to get the go-ahead to carry out additional clinical trials for a nanoparticle-based imaging agent that can detect colorectal cancer at an early stage.
Molecules that can report the cancer-lesion sites are a
promising way to catch the cancer early, and it’s something that colonoscopy can’t do because lesions are too small to be recognized by the unaided human eye. Stanford researchers have engineered nanoscale gold balls and attached them with a tag molecule that can recognize these cancer cells.
“The nanoparticles can detect the cancer cells and bind to them. It’s highly specific and sensitive binding. We’ve shown this in pre-clinical studies at Stanford and in human trials at the VA Hospital,” says Akin.
But there’s another reason this technology stands apart from other imaging agents using nanoparticles: These particular nanoparticles prove non-toxic in studies conducted on mice in Dr. Sam Gambhir’s lab at Stanford. Gambhir is the lead researcher on this project, as well as many others that Stanford has initiated involving early detection of cancer through nano-sensing imaging platforms.
Nanomedicine under the microscope
Safety is a key concern when any medical breakthrough is introduced, and nanotechnology receives more scrutiny than most. Part of the reason may be related to its “newness” factor, and the fact that many nanomedicine characteristics are not well-known. But federal regulations are in place to understand these nanomaterials in the in vitro and in vivo environment, and any formulation that reaches the point of submission to the FDA requires a thorough investigation from a toxicology standpoint to move forward in the regulatory process.
Additionally, brand new organizations, such as the Nanotechnology Characterization Laboratory, have been set up to perform preclinical efficacy and toxicity testing on these nanoparticles with the goal of accelerating the transition of nanomedicine research into clinical applications.
