ANSTO has contributed to a comprehensive investigation of a promising type of nanoparticle that could potentially be used for intractable brain cancers in a combined therapy.
The investigators found that the nanoparticles had potential clinical application for their synergistic effects to be used in combination with radiation treatment, hyperthermia (using heat to kill cancer cells) and their intrinsic toxicity to cancer cells.
The research was published in Materials Science & Engineering C.
Nanoparticles are small enough to cross the blood brain barrier that prohibits other therapies.
In addition to a wide variety of other methods of analysis, studies of the magnetic properties were undertaken at ANSTO.
The magnetic properties were important because they could be used to get the nanoparticles to the target cancer site and in magnetic hyperthermia treatment.
Dr. Kirrily Rule, a co-author on the paper, supervised investigations of magnetic and chemical changes to nanoparticles of silver-doped lanthanum manganite at two temperatures on the high-resolution powder diffractometer Echidna at ANSTO’s Australian Centre for Neutron Scattering.
Although an expert in the magnetic behavior of low-dimensional materials with quantum properties, Rule said she was excited by the opportunity to change focus and assist in medical physics-related research.
Image Credit: NIH
Post by Amanda Scott, NA CEO. Follow her on twitter @tantriclens
Thanks to Heinz V. Hoenen. Follow him on twitter: @HeinzVHoenen
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