Nanotechnology Now - Press Release: Gold Nanorods Could Improve Radiation Therapy of Head and Neck Cancer

Home > Press > Gold Nanorods Could Improve Radiation Therapy of Head and Neck Cancer

Abstract:
Radiation therapy is an important part of head and neck cancer therapy, but most head and neck tumors have a built-in mechanism that makes them resistant to radiation. As a result, oncologists have to deliver huge doses of X-rays to the patient, damaging surrounding tissues and producing significant side effects. To overcome this resistance, researchers at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo and the University of Southern California (USC) have developed a nanoparticle formulation that interferes with the resistance mechanism, and as a result, increases the efficacy of radiation therapy in a mouse model of head and neck cancer.

Gold Nanorods Could Improve Radiation Therapy of Head and Neck Cancer

Bethesda, MD | Posted on January 19th, 2012

Reporting its work in the journal Integrative Biology, a research team headed by Paras Prasad of SUNY Buffalo and Rizwan Masood of USC's Keck School of Medicine describes how it used gold nanorods to deliver a small interfering RNA (siRNA) molecule to head and neck tumors. This siRNA molecule blocks the production of a protein known as sphingosine kinase 1 (SphK1). Previous work by the USC team had shown that this protein prevents radiation-damaged cells from undergoing apoptosis, the cell death program triggered in healthy cells when they age or experience major damage.

RNA interference, which uses siRNAs to reduce the production of specific proteins, has shown promise for treating cancer and other diseases, but these molecules are readily degraded in the blood stream. To overcome this problem, the SUNY-Buffalo team, an early pioneer in the cancer nanotechnology field and an original member of the National Cancer Institute's Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer, has developed biocompatible gold nanorods that can protect siRNAs from degradation and deliver them to tumors.

Working together, the two groups created a gold nanorod-siRNA construct that targets SphK1. When injected directly into head and neck tumors growing in mice prior to radiation therapy, this formulation boosted the efficacy of radiation therapy by over 50 percent. Moreover, this boost in efficacy was seen using greatly reduced doses of radiation. Animals that were treated with the nanoparticle formulation showed no ill effects from the drug. The investigators are now developing a new formulation that could be used to sensitize tumors for which direct injection of drug is not feasible.

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About The National Cancer Institute (NCI)
To help meet the goal of reducing the burden of cancer, the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, is engaged in efforts to harness the power of nanotechnology to radically change the way we diagnose, treat and prevent cancer.

The NCI Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer is a comprehensive, systematized initiative encompassing the public and private sectors, designed to accelerate the application of the best capabilities of nanotechnology to cancer.

Currently, scientists are limited in their ability to turn promising molecular discoveries into benefits for cancer patients. Nanotechnology can provide the technical power and tools that will enable those developing new diagnostics, therapeutics, and preventives to keep pace with today’s explosion in knowledge.

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Contacts:
National Cancer Institute
Office of Technology & Industrial Relations
ATTN: NCI Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer
Building 31, Room 10A49
31 Center Drive , MSC 2580
Bethesda , MD 20892-2580

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