Researchers at Rice University have successfully used a new technique called "quadrapeutics" in pre-clinical trials to kill cancer cells.
The method, first developed by the researchers two years ago, involves shining a laser on these cells and tiny bubbles surrounding them and exploding, according to IEEE Spectrum. The bursting bubbles provide an opportunity to use chemotherapy drugs on cells that are not completely destroyed.
The name of the technique comes from the fact that four tools are used in the process. These tools are laser pulses, gold nanoparticles, x-rays, and drugs.
The first step of quadrapeutics involves the use of chemotherapy drugs, specifically doxorubicin and paclitaxel in the pre-clinical trials at Rice. Afterwards, the nanoparticles are tagged with antibodies that target certain cancer cells and attach to their surfaces. The cells start to ingest the nanoparticles, which are stored under the cell's protective outer membrane, Discovery News reported.
Near-infrared laser pulses are then fired at the cancer cells. While the light is able to penetrate human tissue, the nanoparticles are unable to absorb such a wavelength of light. This leads to the effect of plasmonics, the free electrons on the nanoparticles are excited by the light, resulting in many oscillations that create excess heat.
The research team led by physicist and biochemist at Rice Dmitri Lapotko, chose to use intercellular explosions to kill cancer cells so that only cancer cells are destroyed while healthy cells nearby stay safe, IEEE Spectrum reported.
"What kills the most resistant cancer cells is the intercellular synergy of these components and the events we trigger in cells," Lapotko said. "This synergy showed a 100-fold amplification of the therapeutic strength of standard chemoradiation in experiments on cancer cell cultures."
The team applied quadrapeutics to carcinoma, a squamous cell on the head and neck. Carcinoma is a lethal form of cancer that had recently grown immune to traditional chemotherapies. Despite the researchers using only 3 percent of the usual drug dosages and 6 percent of the usual doses of radiation, the technique was shown to kill cancerous tumors in mice within a week.
Lapotko said he believes that quadrapeutics could be used to treat different solid tumors, such as brain, lung, prostate cancer and others that had proven to be difficult to treat, Discovery News reported.
The research was published in the journal Nature Medicine.
