Nanoparticles could be used as an "alarm clock" that wakes up the immune system, allowing the body to fight cancerous tumors.
Researchers set out to fing way to jumpstart the body's ability to recognize and attack invading cancer cells, Norris Cotton Cancer Center reported. Tumors trick the immune system into thinking things are normal even when the cancer cells are dividing and spreading.
Tiny nanoparticles could effectively penetrate these cancer cells with antibodies, drugs, and other treatments. Some of these agents could activate and even strengthen the immune system's response against tumors.
"Our lab's approach differs from most in that we use nanoparticles to stimulate the immune system to attack tumors and there are a variety of potential ways that can be done," said Steve Fiering, PhD, Norris Cotton Cancer Center researcher and professor of Microbiology and Immunology, and of Genetics at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. "Perhaps the most exciting potential of nanoparticles is that although very small, they can combine multiple therapeutic agents."
The new therapy would limit the tumor's ability to trick the immune system; this would allow the immune system to equip itself with more "soldier cells" in the event of a cancer invasion.
"Now that efforts to stimulate anti-tumor immune responses are moving from the lab to the clinic, the potential for nanoparticles to be utilized to improve an immune-based therapy approach is attracting a lot of attention from both scientists and clinicians. And clinical usage does not appear too distant," Fiering said.
The researchers is testing the use of heat in combination with this type of nano particle therapy. Metallic nano particles containing iron, silver, or gold are absorbed by the cancer cells. The nanoparticle is then activated using magnetic energy, infrared light, or radio waves. This reaction creates heat strong enough to kill the cancer cells; it can also prompt the immune system to kill cancer cells that have not been heated.
