A New Tumor-Targeting Weapon in Lung Cancer: Nanoparticles

A newly published study in ACS Nano has shown how nanoparticles could be used in our fight against lung cancer.

Nanotechnology is the control of matter at the atomic and molecular level, a new scientific field. Nanotechnology, is also defined as "the control of matter with at least one dimension measuring from 1 nanometer to 100 nanometers.”

Nanotechnology has begun making important contributions to clinical medicine, particularly oncology, for some time. Nanomaterials have various characteristics ideal for oncology applications. In particular, "preferential accumulation in tumors and limited distribution in normal tissue" give them an advantage over other small molecules.

In medicine, nanotechnology and nanoparticles (NTs) can be attached to address-labeled biological molecules capable of targeted movement to direct them to specific sites in the body or even specific organelles inside cells.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide, with 2012 alone accounting for 1.59 million deaths from the disease.

When cancer begins in the lung, it is divided into two groups: small cell lung cancer and non-small cell lung cancer.

The 2 most important issues in lung cancer treatment are how large the cancer is and whether it has spread. Current treatment options are surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, or combinations of these.

Chemotherapy is the mainstay of small cell lung cancer treatment and is also frequently used for non-small cell lung cancer.

A newly published study in ACS Nano has shown how nanoparticles could be used in our fight against lung cancer. The study ensured that nanoparticles released their drugs only at the tumor site, leaving tumor-free areas unexposed. How did the nanocarriers achieve this?

Nanoparticles lose their shells only inside the tumor because levels of an enzyme called protease, which triggers shell loss and drug release, are high within the tumor.

Proteases are a group of enzymes responsible for breaking down proteins. They occur in both normal and cancerous tissue, but are known to be more concentrated in cancerous tissue. The team gave nanoparticles a shell protecting against low protease concentrations such as those in normal tissue.

When nanoparticles entered the tumor site, the high protease concentration removed their protective shells, and their drugs were released only in tumor tissue. This makes nanoparticles ideal drug carriers.

The study used cisplatin, a chemotherapy drug widely used for lung and certain other cancers but known also to affect healthy tissue. Scientists succeeded in delivering cisplatin only into the tumor through nanocarriers.

With this method, drug effectiveness in tumor tissue was found to be 10-25 times greater than when the drugs were used alone.

Besides the anticancer drug benefits listed above, this nanotechnology-based method may allow effectiveness at much lower doses, thereby also reducing unwanted side effects. In conclusion, nanotechnology and nanocarriers have brought new momentum to cancer treatment, particularly targeted treatment. We will follow developments closely and share them with you in the coming period.