Nano bubbles filled with drug may kill cancer cells: Study
Sydney, July 16 : In a step further to identify range of cancer treatments available to patients, scientists have developed drug-filled nano bubbles triggered in the body by X-rays which may help kill the malignant cells.
The tiny bubbles, known as liposomes, are commonly used in pharmacology to encapsulate drugs, making them more effective in the treatment of disease and researchers have now been able to engineer these liposomes to discharge their drug cargo on-demand, once activated by standard X-rays. Initial testing has shown this technique to be highly efficient in killing bowel cancer cells.
"The development and application of various nanomaterial designs for drug delivery is currently a key focus area in nanomedicine," said lead author Wei Deng, fro ARC Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale BioPhotonics (CNBP), Australia.
"Liposomes are already well established as an extremely effective drug-delivery system. Made out of similar material as cell membranes, these 'bubbles' are relatively simple to prepare, can be filled with appropriate medications and then injected into specific parts of the body. The issue however, is in controlling the timely release of the drug from the liposome," Deng added.
For the study, published in the journal Nature Communications, the team embeded gold nanoparticles and the photo-sensitive molecule verteporfin into the wall of the liposome, in a laboratory setting
The X-ray radiation caused the verteporfin to react and produce highly reactive singlet oxygen which destabilisesdthe liposomal membrane, causing the release of the drug, Deng explained.
"The gold nanoparticles are added into the mix as they focus the X-ray energy. This enhances the singlet oxygen generation and hence improves the speed of the membrane breakup," she added.
The liposomes were filled with chemotherapy drug called doxorubicin, which killed the cancer cells far more effectively than without X-ray triggering
Thus, controlling the timely release of the drug from the bubble is very crucial, Deng said.
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US VP JD Vance says Lebanon not part of ceasefire, calls it ‘misunderstanding’
Budapest/Washington: US Vice President J D Vance has said that Lebanon was never included in the ceasefire understanding with Iran, describing the confusion as a “legitimate misunderstanding”.
Speaking to reporters before departing from Hungary, Vance said, “I think the Iranians thought that the ceasefire included Lebanon and it just didn’t. We never made that promise.”
He stressed that the United States had not included Lebanon in the scope of the ceasefire at any stage.
His remarks come amid continued Israeli strikes in Lebanon, where more than 200 people were reported killed, even as ceasefire talks between Iran and the US move forward.
Vance said Israel had “offered … to check themselves a little bit in Lebanon because they want to make sure that our negotiation is successful”.
He warned that if Iran allows the situation in Lebanon to affect the negotiations, it could derail the talks.
“If Iran wants to let this negotiation fall apart in a conflict where they were getting hammered over Lebanon, which has nothing to do with them and which the United States never once said was part of the ceasefire, that’s ultimately their choice,” he said.
