Fantastic Voyage: Tumor-Targeting Nanoworms

May 7, 2008 on 11:30 pm | In Faculty News, Science News & Hot Topics |

Magnetic Iron Oxide Nanoworms for Tumor Targeting and Imaging
Advanced Materials
Volume 20, Issue 9, Date: May 5, 2008, Pages: 1630-1635
Ji-Ho Park, Geoffrey von Maltzahn, Lianglin Zhang, Michael P. Schwartz, Erkki Ruoslahti, Sangeeta N. Bhatia, Michael J. Sailor

UCSD Press Release:

Scientists at UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara and MIT have developed nanometer-sized “nanoworms” that can cruise through the bloodstream without significant interference from the body’s immune defense system and—like tiny anti-cancer missiles—home in on tumors.

Their discovery, detailed in this week’s issue of the journal Advanced Materials, is reminiscent of the 1966 science fiction movie, the Fantastic Voyage, in which a submarine is shrunken to microscopic dimensions, then injected into the bloodstream to remove a blood clot from a diplomat’s brain.

Using nanoworms, doctors should eventually be able to target and reveal the location of developing tumors that are too small to detect by conventional methods. Carrying payloads targeted to specific features on tumors, these microscopic vehicles could also one day provide the means to more effectively deliver toxic anti-cancer drugs to these tumors in high concentrations without negatively impacting other parts of the body.