Cancer treatment using nanoparticles has been gaining attention as a revolutionary technology that can precisely target cancer cells and minimize the side effects of conventional cancer treatments.
In today’s busy world, a healthy body is essential. Although advances in medical technology have made it possible to cure many diseases, there are still some that are difficult to treat. One of the biggest is cancer. It’s a dangerous disease that’s responsible for 30% of all human deaths. There are many causes of cancer, but the common thread is that cells grow abnormally and form masses that interfere with the body’s functions. Cancer cells have the ability to multiply indefinitely, and unlike normal cells, they have the ability to evade cell death. This makes cancer especially difficult to treat, and it has a high chance of recurrence.
But it would be amazing if a tiny particle could stop such a large, difficult-to-treat disease in its tracks. In recent years, the impact of nanotechnology on medicine has been gaining traction, and the use of nanoparticles to treat cancer has been a major breakthrough.
The term nanoparticle is a generic term for particles with a diameter of 1 to 100 nanometers (nm), which doesn’t sound like much on its own. However, when the same substance shrinks from the scale we see in our daily lives to the nanoscale, it takes on completely different properties. For example, the gold we see around us is a yellowish metal, but when it gets smaller at the nanoscale, it becomes red, blue, and other colors, and its properties change. This is because the movement of electrons on the surface of gold changes with size, and the different properties that emerge as the size scale of these materials shrinks is what makes nanoparticles special. These nanoparticles can change the fundamental properties of a material, which allows for a wide range of applications.
Let’s take a look at how these nanoparticles can be used to stop cancer cells. In the body, cancer cells attract the surrounding blood vessels to absorb nutrients and multiply constantly. As this mass of cancer cells grows larger and larger, it paralyzes the functioning of other parts of the body, which can lead to death. The progression of cancer is slow in the early stages, but once it grows beyond a certain size, it accelerates dramatically. The process of eliminating these cancer cells with nanoparticles is like throwing a grenade at a target. Cancer cells are more acidic than other cells in the body, and this technology takes advantage of this by utilizing nanoparticles that combine materials that react with the right amount of acid. The process uses iron oxide nanoparticles, which react with an acidic substance to assemble together to create the desired nanomaterial.
The advantage of this technique is its precision. The nanoparticles can be targeted to specific cells or tissues in the body, maximizing the effectiveness of the treatment while minimizing side effects. One of the biggest problems with cancer treatment is that normal cells are also damaged during treatment, and nanoparticles offer the possibility of solving this problem. The nanoparticles are then injected into the blood vessels of a person with cancer, and as they travel through the body’s blood vessels, they don’t react with other body cells, but instead travel along the blood vessels until they reach the cancer cells. When they pass by the cancer cells, they react with the acidic substances that are bound to the nanoparticles, like a grenade that explodes when it hits its target, killing the cancer cells.
Another thing that makes this technology unique is that it can be used universally for all cancer cells. There are usually different treatments for cancer depending on where the cancer cells originate. However, this nanotechnology was developed using the same characteristic that all cancer cells have, which is acidity. Therefore, these nanoparticles can react to all types of cancer cells and treat them, which is a breakthrough. In addition, treatment with nanoparticles has shown promise in reducing many of the side effects of conventional cancer treatments. For example, side effects such as hair loss, fatigue, and immune suppression, which are common with chemotherapy, could be minimized with nanoparticle therapy.
This technology has been tested in clinical trials on laboratory mice and is expected to be commercialized in the coming years. Other applications of nanotechnology in medicine include treatments for liver cancer cells and MRI contrast agents. Recent research is developing ways to precisely control the delivery of drugs using nanoparticles, which is expected to enable customized treatment that delivers drugs to specific disease sites. These small, lightweight nanoparticles are playing an important role in helping the medical community tackle some of the biggest and most serious diseases. As nanotechnology continues to advance, we may be able to find answers to many of the health challenges we face in the future.
