Chemotherapy via Nanotubes, A targeted way to Kill Cancer

Chemotherapy via Nanotubes for targeted delivery of cancer drugs: The Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), in association with the researchers from Washington State University, developed a targeted nanotube drug delivery system to kill cancer cells.

These nanotubes will carry chemotherapy drugs directly to the targeted cancer cells. Researchers are at full swing for about a decade to produce carcinogenic therapy drugs without adverse health effects and nanotube drug targets killing cancer cells, now.

WSU’s professor Yuehe Lin, PNNL senior research scientists Chun-Long Chen and a faculty at Washington University, led the target nanotube drug research and published in the journal ‘Small’ as a cover.

Nanotubes are tiny organic molecules (Peptoids) which deliver the cancer-killing drugs in a targeted manner. The bio-enhanced nanotube comprises of drug molecules,cancer-targeting molecules, and light-emitting dyes encased in nanosheet membranes to form a tubular structure. These nanotubes are lakh times thinner than human hair, enabled with a tracking system to monitor the delivery of drugs into the cancer cells.

The new verdict handles two therapies in nanotube-a chemotherapy and phototherapy, both delivered to the cancer cells directly. Photodynamic therapy containing chemicals, when exposed to light, emits reactive oxygen species(ROS) to kill carcinoma cells.

The researchers found that the dual drug approach of nanotube therapy helps to kill cancer cells precisely at a lower dose without toxicity. The research group tested the nanotubes on lung cancer cells, which delivered chemotherapy drug doxorubicin promptly into cancer cells, resulting in the efficient killing of tumor cells with minimal use of chemotherapy drugs.

“Nanotube drug delivery system promises precise targeting with little damage to healthy cells,” said Yuehe Lin, a professor in WSU’s School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering. He also added that “Therapists can precisely locate and target the tumor cells with the aid of fluorescent dyes and cancer-targeting molecules in the nanotubes.”This helps to track the working mechanism of nanotube drugs inside the cancer cells.

Chun-Long Chen says that “Peptoids help to develop highly stable and programmable nanotubes with an inbuilt tracking system compactly.”

Peptoids’ unique octopus-like structure helps effectively in tracing infected cells. Professor Lin says that “Nanotubes stay longer in the body for cancer therapy due to its unique structure.”