Nanotechnology Now

Our NanoNews Digest Sponsors
Heifer International



Home > Press > “Theranostic” Imaging Offers Means of Killing Prostate Cancer Cells Without Harming Other Healthy Cells

Abstract:
Experimenting with human prostate cancer cells and mice, cancer imaging experts at Johns Hopkins say they have developed a method for finding and killing malignant cells while sparing healthy ones.

“Theranostic” Imaging Offers Means of Killing Prostate Cancer Cells Without Harming Other Healthy Cells

Baltimore, MD | Posted on August 8th, 2012

The method, called theranostic imaging, targets and tracks potent drug therapies directly and only to cancer cells. It relies on binding an originally inactive form of drug chemotherapy, with an enzyme, to specific proteins on tumor cell surfaces and detecting the drug's absorption into the tumor. The binding of the highly specific drug-protein complex, or nanoplex, to the cell surface allows it to get inside the cancerous cell, where the enzyme slowly activates the tumor-killing drug.

Researchers say their findings, published in the journal American Chemical Society Nano online Aug. 6, are believed to be the first to show that chemotherapies can be precisely controlled at the molecular level to maximize their effectiveness against tumors, while also minimizing their side effects.

Senior study investigator Zaver Bhujwalla, Ph.D., a professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and its Kimmel Cancer Center, notes that a persistent problem with current chemotherapy is that it attacks all kinds of cells and tissues, not just cancerous ones.

In the theranostic imaging experiments, overseen by Bhujwalla and study co-investigator Martin Pomper, M.D., Ph.D., investigators directed drugs only to cancer cells, specifically those with prostate-specific membrane antigen, or PSMA cell surface proteins.

"Our results show a non-invasive imaging approach to following and delivering targeted therapy to any cancer that expresses PSMA," says Bhujwalla, who also serves as director of the Johns Hopkins In Vivo Cellular and Molecular Imaging Center (ICMIC), where the theranostic imaging studies were developed.

Bhujwalla says the new technique potentially will work against any cancer in which tumors elevate production of certain cell surface proteins. Examples would include breast cancers with HER-2/neu and CXCR4 proteins, and some liver, lung and kidney cancers also known to express particular proteins. She notes that PSMA is expressed in the vessels of most solid tumors, suggesting that the nanoplex reported in the latest study could be used in general to image and treat a variety of cancers.

In their latest series of experiments, primarily in mice injected with human prostate tumor cells, Bhujwalla and the Johns Hopkins team tested their ability to track with imaging devices the delivery of anti-cancer drugs directly to tumors. Some of the tumors were comprised of cells with PSMA, while other so-called control tumors had none. Included in the drug nanoplex were small strands of RNA, cell construction acids that can be used instead to block and turn down production of a well-known enzyme, choline kinase, whose levels usually rise with tumor growth. All nanoplex components were imaged inside the tumor, in addition to dropping choline kinase production, which decreased by 80 percent within 48 hours of nanoplex absorption into cells with ample PSMA. When researchers used antibodies to block the action of PSMA, down went the level of nanoplex uptake and drug activation in cancerous cells as measured by dimming of the image.

Different concentrations of the drug nanoplex, tagged with radioactive and fluorescent molecules, were mixed in the lab with prostate cancer tissue cells, some of which had extra PSMA and others which had none. Only those cells with extra PSMA showed nanoplex uptake, as measured by image intensity, which later decreased when PSMA-blocking chemicals were added (back to levels seen in cells with almost no PSMA).

Additional experiments involving injections of three different concentrations of the drug nanoplex showed no damage to other vital mouse organs, such as the kidney and liver, nor any uptick in the mouse immune system response.

"Our theranostic imaging approach shows how the best methods of detection and treatment can be combined to form highly specialized, more potent and safer forms of chemotherapy," says Pomper, a professor at Johns Hopkins, who also serves as an associate director at ICMIC.

He says that an important goal for theranostic imaging is to move it beyond standard chemotherapy that attacks one target molecule at a time. "With theranostic imaging, we can attack multiple tumor targets, making it harder for the tumor to evade drug treatment," says Pomper, who is already working with colleagues at Johns Hopkins to identify other molecular targets.

The most recent studies were performed at Johns Hopkins over two years, starting in 2010, with funding support from the National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health. The corresponding grant numbers are P50-CA103175, RO1-CA138515 and RO1-CA134675.

In addition to Bhujwalla, and Pomper, other Johns Hopkins researchers from the Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology involved in this imaging study were lead investigators Zhihang Chen, Ph.D., and Mary-France Penet, Ph.D. Additional study co-investigators were Sridhar Nimmagadda, Ph.D.; Li Cong, Ph.D.; Sangeeta Banerjee, Ph.D.; Paul Winnard Jr., Ph.D.; Dmitri Artemov, Ph.D.; and Kristine Glunde, Ph.D.

####

For more information, please click here

Contacts:
David March
410-955-1534

Copyright © Newswise

If you have a comment, please Contact us.

Issuers of news releases, not 7th Wave, Inc. or Nanotechnology Now, are solely responsible for the accuracy of the content.

Bookmark:
Delicious Digg Newsvine Google Yahoo Reddit Magnoliacom Furl Facebook

Related Links

For additional information, go to 1:

2:

3:

Related News Press

News and information

Flexible electronics integrated with paper-thin structure for use in space January 17th, 2025

‘Brand new physics’ for next generation spintronics: Physicists discover a unique quantum behavior that offers a new way to manipulate electron-spin and magnetization to push forward cutting-edge spintronic technologies, like computing that mimics the human brain January 17th, 2025

Quantum engineers ‘squeeze’ laser frequency combs to make more sensitive gas sensors January 17th, 2025

How a milk component could eliminate one of the biggest challenges in treating cancer and other disease, including rare diseases: Nebraska startup to use nanoparticles found in milk to target therapeutics to specific cells January 17th, 2025

Imaging

New material to make next generation of electronics faster and more efficient With the increase of new technology and artificial intelligence, the demand for efficient and powerful semiconductors continues to grow November 8th, 2024

Turning up the signal November 8th, 2024

New discovery aims to improve the design of microelectronic devices September 13th, 2024

Quantum researchers cause controlled ‘wobble’ in the nucleus of a single atom September 13th, 2024

Govt.-Legislation/Regulation/Funding/Policy

Department of Energy announces $71 million for research on quantum information science enabled discoveries in high energy physics: Projects combine theory and experiment to open new windows on the universe January 17th, 2025

Quantum engineers ‘squeeze’ laser frequency combs to make more sensitive gas sensors January 17th, 2025

Chainmail-like material could be the future of armor: First 2D mechanically interlocked polymer exhibits exceptional flexibility and strength January 17th, 2025

Researchers uncover strong light-matter interactions in quantum spin liquids: Groundbreaking experiment supported by Rice researcher reveals new insights into a mysterious phase of quantum matter December 13th, 2024

Nanomedicine

How a milk component could eliminate one of the biggest challenges in treating cancer and other disease, including rare diseases: Nebraska startup to use nanoparticles found in milk to target therapeutics to specific cells January 17th, 2025

Exosomes: A potential biomarker and therapeutic target in diabetic cardiomyopathy November 8th, 2024

NYU Abu Dhabi researchers develop novel covalent organic frameworks for precise cancer treatment delivery: NYU Abu Dhabi researchers develop novel covalent organic frameworks for precise cancer treatment delivery September 13th, 2024

Unveiling the power of hot carriers in plasmonic nanostructures August 16th, 2024

Discoveries

Autonomous AI assistant to build nanostructures: An interdisciplinary research group at TU Graz is working on constructing logic circuits through the targeted arrangement of individual molecules: Artificial intelligence should speed up the process enormously January 17th, 2025

‘Brand new physics’ for next generation spintronics: Physicists discover a unique quantum behavior that offers a new way to manipulate electron-spin and magnetization to push forward cutting-edge spintronic technologies, like computing that mimics the human brain January 17th, 2025

Quantum engineers ‘squeeze’ laser frequency combs to make more sensitive gas sensors January 17th, 2025

How a milk component could eliminate one of the biggest challenges in treating cancer and other disease, including rare diseases: Nebraska startup to use nanoparticles found in milk to target therapeutics to specific cells January 17th, 2025

Announcements

Quantum engineers ‘squeeze’ laser frequency combs to make more sensitive gas sensors January 17th, 2025

How a milk component could eliminate one of the biggest challenges in treating cancer and other disease, including rare diseases: Nebraska startup to use nanoparticles found in milk to target therapeutics to specific cells January 17th, 2025

The National Space Society Congratulates SpaceX on Starship’s 7th Test Flight: Latest Test of the Megarocket Hoped to Demonstrate a Number of New Technologies and Systems January 17th, 2025

The National Space Society Congratulates Blue Origin on the Inaugural Flight of New Glenn: The Heavy Lift Reusable Rocket Will Open New Frontiers and Provide Healthy Competition January 17th, 2025

Grants/Sponsored Research/Awards/Scholarships/Gifts/Contests/Honors/Records

Researchers uncover strong light-matter interactions in quantum spin liquids: Groundbreaking experiment supported by Rice researcher reveals new insights into a mysterious phase of quantum matter December 13th, 2024

New discovery aims to improve the design of microelectronic devices September 13th, 2024

Physicists unlock the secret of elusive quantum negative entanglement entropy using simple classical hardware August 16th, 2024

Atomic force microscopy in 3D July 5th, 2024

NanoNews-Digest
The latest news from around the world, FREE




  Premium Products
NanoNews-Custom
Only the news you want to read!
 Learn More
NanoStrategies
Full-service, expert consulting
 Learn More











ASP
Nanotechnology Now Featured Books




NNN

The Hunger Project