{"52903":{"#nid":"52903","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Attacking Cancer Cells with Hydrogel Nanoparticles","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EOne of the difficulties of fighting cancer is that drugs\noften hit other non-cancerous cells, causing patients to get sick. But what if\nresearchers could sneak cancer-fighting particles into just the cancer cells?\nResearchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Ovarian Cancer\nInstitute are working on doing just that. In the online journal \u003Cem\u003EBMC\u003C\/em\u003E \u003Cem\u003ECancer\n\u003C\/em\u003Ethey detail a method that uses hydrogels - less than 100 nanometers in size\n- to sneak a particular type of small interfering RNA(siRNA) into cancer cells.\nOnce in the cell the siRNA turns on the programmed cell death the body uses to\nkill mutated cells and help traditional chemotherapy do its job.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;Many cancers are characterized by an over abundance of\nepidermal growth factor receptors (EGFR). When the EGFR level in a cell is\nelevated it tells the cell to replicate at a rapid rate. It also turns down\napoptosis, or programmed cell death.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u201cWith our technique we\u2019re inhibiting EGFR\u2019s growth, with\nsmall interfering RNA. And by inhibiting it\u2019s growth, we\u2019re increasing the\ncells\u2019s apoptotic function. If we hit the cell with chemotherapy at the same time,\nwe should be able to kill the cancer cells more effectively,\u201d said John\nMcDonald, professor\nat the School of Biology at Georgia Tech and chief research scientist at the\nOvarian Cancer Institute.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;Small interfering RNA is good at shutting down EGFR\nproduction, but once inside the cell siRNA has a limited life span. Keeping it\nprotected inside the hydrogel nanoparticles allows them to get into the cancer\ncell safely and acts as a protective barrier around them. The hydrogel releases\nonly a small amount of siRNA at a time, ensuring that while some are out in the\ncancer cell doing their job, reinforcements are held safely inside the\nnanoparticle until it\u2019s time to do their job.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u201cIt\u2019s like a Trojan horse,\u201d said L. Andrew Lyon, professor\nin the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Georgia Tech. \u201cWe\u2019ve decorated\nthe surface of these hydrogels with a ligand that tricks the cancer cell into\ntaking it up. Once inside, the particles have a slow release profile that leaks\nout the siRNA over a timescale of days, allowing it to have a therapeutic\neffect.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;Cells use the\nmessenger RNA (mRNA) to generate proteins, which help to keep the cell growing.\nOnce the siRNA enters the cell, it binds to the mRNA and recruits proteins that attack the siRNA-mRNA complex. But the\ncancer cell\u0027s not finished; it keeps generating proteins, so without a\ncontinuous supply of siRNA, the cell recovers. Using the hydrogel to slowly\nrelease the siRNA allows it to keep up a sustained attack so that it can continue to interrupt the\nproduction of proteins.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u201cWe\u2019ve shown that\nyou can get knock down out to a few days time frame, which could present a\nclinical window to come in and do multiple treatments in a combination\nchemotherapy approach,\u201d said Lyon.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u201cThe fact that this\nsystem is releasing the siRNA slowly, without giving the cell time to immediately\nrecover, gives us much better efficiency at killing the cancer cells with\nchemotherapy,\u201d added McDonald.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;Previous techniques\nhave involved using antibodies to knock down the proteins.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u201cBut oftentimes, a\nmutation may arise in the targeted gene such that the antibody will no longer\nhave the effect it once did, thereby increasing the chance for recurrence,\u201d\nsaid McDonald.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;The team used hydrogels because they\u2019re non-toxic, have a\nrelatively slow release rate, and can survive in the body long enough to reach\ntheir target.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u201cIt\u2019s a well-defined architecture that you\u2019re using the\nintrinsic porosity of that material to load things into, and since our\nparticles are about 98 percent water by volume, there\u2019s plenty of internal\nvolume in which to load things,\u201d said Lyon.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;Currently, the tests have been shown to work \u003Cem\u003Ein vitro\u003C\/em\u003E, but the team will be\ninitiating tests \u003Cem\u003Ein vivo\u003C\/em\u003E shortly.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"Researchers at Georgia Tech are using hydrogels - less than 100 nanometers in size - to sneak a particular type of small interfering RNA into cancer cells. Once in the cell the siRNA turns on the programmed cell death the body uses to kill mutated cells and help traditional chemotherapy do its job.","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Researchers at Georgia Tech are using hydrogel nanoparticles to kill cancer cells"}],"uid":"27310","created_gmt":"2010-02-15 09:54:14","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:05:33","author":"David Terraso","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2010-02-15T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2010-02-15T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"52904":{"id":"52904","type":"image","title":"Hydrogel Nanoparticles","body":null,"created":"1449175459","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 20:44:19","changed":"1475894476","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:41:16","alt":"Hydrogel Nanoparticles","file":{"fid":"190171","name":"CSR_Lyon_scale.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/CSR_Lyon_scale.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/CSR_Lyon_scale.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":575934,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/CSR_Lyon_scale.jpg?itok=N68VGW4D"}}},"media_ids":["52904"],"groups":[{"id":"1183","name":"Home"}],"categories":[{"id":"140","name":"Cancer Research"},{"id":"141","name":"Chemistry and Chemical Engineering"},{"id":"146","name":"Life Sciences and Biology"},{"id":"149","name":"Nanotechnology and Nanoscience"}],"keywords":[{"id":"8462","name":"hydro"},{"id":"3356","name":"hydrogel"},{"id":"3355","name":"Lyon"},{"id":"281","name":"mcdonald"},{"id":"2286","name":"nano"},{"id":"2054","name":"nanoparticle"},{"id":"2973","name":"nanoparticles"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EGeorgia Tech Media Relations\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ELaura Diamond\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:laura.diamond@comm.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Elaura.diamond@comm.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-894-6016\u003Cbr \/\u003EJason Maderer\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:maderer@gatech.edu\u0022\u003Emaderer@gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-660-2926\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["david.terraso@comm.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}