In the near future it may be possible to kill cancer cells without using any cancer drugs. Instead, a nanoparticle will get cells to destroy themselves after first acting as a Trojan horse. A process that won’t harm healthy neighboring cells at all.
Science Alert explains:
“One of the latest methods pioneered by scientists to treat cancer uses a Trojan horse sneak attack to prompt cancer cells to self-destruct – all without using any drugs.
Key to the technique is the use of a nanoparticle coated in a specific amino acid called L-phenylalanine, one of several such acids that cancer cells rely on to grow. L-phenylalanine isn’t made by the body, but absorbed from meat and dairy products.
In tests on mice, the nanoparticle – called Nano-pPAAM or Nanoscopic phenylalanine Porous Amino Acid Mimic – killed cancer cells specifically and effectively, posing as a friendly amino acid before causing the cells to destroy themselves.
The self-destruction mode is triggered as the nanoparticle puts production of certain chemicals known as reactive oxygen species (ROS) into overdrive. It’s enough to bring down the cancer cells while leaving neighbouring, healthy cells intact.
‘Against conventional wisdom, our approach involved using the nanomaterial as a drug instead [of] as a drug-carrier,’ says material scientist Dalton Tay from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
‘Here, the cancer-selective and killing properties of Nano-pPAAM are intrinsic and do not need to be activated by any external stimuli. The amino acid L-phenylalanine acts as a Trojan horse – a cloak to mask the nanotherapeutic on the inside.’
Nano-pPAAM was shown to kill around 80 percent of breast, skin, and gastric cancer cells in mice, about on a par with current chemotherapy drugs (but without all the side effects of course). While dangerous to cancer cells, it’s based on a silica nanoparticle classed as safe to humans by US food regulators.”
Hopefully, this research continues to develop and winds up becoming a viable treatment option. Considering how bad 2020 has been we sure could use a win right about now and a cure for cancer would most definitely fit the bill.
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