NanoApps Medical is investigating the possibility that superparamagnetic nanoparticles (SPIONs) (Figure 1) and other classes of nanoparticles (e.g., gold coated nanoshells) (Figure 2) might have the capacity to target cancerous tumors, metastasizing cancer cells, pathogens, etc. to deactivate/eliminate them via hypothermia.
This means that once the nanoparticles are adhered to their targets, they would be heated by an external source (a magnetic field in the case of SPIONs, and near-infrared laser light in the case of gold nanoshells) to inflict irreversible thermal damage to these entities through the catastrophic disruption of their cell membranes.
Additionally, gold nanoshells may be synthesized to be hollow, which means that they might be loaded with powerful drugs to impart a dual activity against their targets. A further advantage of this strategy is that the “collateral damage” to surrounding healthy cells will be minimized as the thermal “blast zones” and drug delivery would be highly localized, in stark contrast to conventional chemotherapies that flood the patient with toxic chemicals.
Image Credit: Alias Studio Sydney
News This Week
Coronavirus research updates: Positive coronavirus test is no guarantee of infectiousness
Nature wades through the literature on the new coronavirus — and summarizes key papers as they appear: 1 June — Positive coronavirus test is no guarantee of infectiousness People with COVID-19 are unlikely to [...]
Coronavirus May Be a Blood Vessel Disease, Which Explains Everything
In April, blood clots emerged as one of the many mysterious symptoms attributed to Covid-19, a disease that had initially been thought to largely affect the lungs in the form of pneumonia. Quickly after came [...]
Researchers develop experimental rapid COVID-19 test using nanoparticle technique
Scientists from the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) developed an experimental diagnostic test for COVID-19 that can visually detect the presence of the virus in 10 minutes. It uses a simple assay [...]
Researchers flag similarities between COVID-19 deaths and severe rheumatic illnesses
Rheumatologists at the University of Alberta are flagging similarities between the deaths of some COVID-19 patients and those with rheumatic illnesses, and are testing proven rheumatic treatments to see whether they help against [...]
Next-gen nano technologies to tackle infection and diagnose disease
Next-gen nano technologies that can prevent infection and diagnose disease are set to transform the medical industry as this important UniSA research is awarded more than $2 million dollars under the National Health and [...]
DeepMind’s Protein Folding AI Is Going After Coronavirus
In late December last year, Dr. Li Wenliang began warning officials about a novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China, but was silenced by the police before tragically succumbing to the disease two months later. Meanwhile, [...]
COVID-19 is like three different diseases, says New York doctor
Almost 10 weeks into the pandemic, COVID-19 is continuing to surprise and baffle health experts. In fact, experts' picture of exactly how COVID-19 might play out in the body is now quite different to [...]
Designing vaccines from artificial proteins
EPFL scientists have developed a new computational approach to create artificial proteins, which showed promising results in vivo as functional vaccines. This approach opens the possibility to engineer safer and more effective vaccines. Vaccines [...]
Tiny RNA that should attack coronavirus diminish with age and disease
A group of tiny RNA that should attack the virus causing COVID-19 when it tries to infect the body are diminished with age and chronic health problems, a decrease that likely helps explain why [...]
COVID-19 Coronavirus blood-clot mystery intensifies
Purple rashes, swollen legs, clogged catheters and sudden death — blood clots, large and small, are a frequent complication of COVID-19, and researchers are just beginning to untangle why. For weeks, reports have poured [...]
Coronavirus vaccine trials are underway around the world. China’s hoping it can be first for ‘redemption’
In a medical centre in the eastern city of Xuzhou, a few dozen healthy adults have become some of the first to trial a vaccine candidate for the coronavirus. They are among a small [...]
Epitopes.world taps AI to predict COVID-19 vaccine success
A team of researchers hailing from Harvard and Université de Montréal today launched Epitopes.world, an AI-powered, interactive platform designed to facilitate COVID-19 vaccine development. It’s built atop an algorithm — CAMAP — that generates predictions for potential [...]
Publication of our paper “Human Brain/Cloud Interface” in Frontiers Neuroscience Ebook
The "Human Brain/Cloud Interface" paper had more views that 99% of Frontiers articles. It has now been added to Frontier's "Nanotechnologies in Neuroscience and Neuroengineering" ebook which is available for download. Contributors: Frank J. [...]
The scientific advances we need to stop COVID-19 by Bill Gates
This is the full-length version of this post. You can read the condensed version, which appeared as an opinion article in the Washington Post, here. The coronavirus pandemic pits all of humanity against the virus. The [...]
New nanophotonic saliva/nasal swab test to instantly detect coronavirus with lasers
European photonics scientists are developing an ultrasensitive laser sensor that detects coronavirus at the earliest point of infection from a saliva or nasal swab in minutes. Responding to the European Commission’s Express Calls to [...]
Why COVID-19 may attack the body differently than we think
Understanding how COVID-19 attacks the human body is essential to developing an effective treatment or vaccine to stop the global pandemic — but there's still so much we don't know about how it can kill us. As [...]
Leave A Comment