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Puck
The Texan
Joined: 05 Jan 2004
Posts: 5596
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 Tue Aug 02, 2005 9:58 am Nanotechnology kills cancer cells |
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| Quote: | BBC NEWS
Nanotechnology kills cancer cells
Nanotechnology has been harnessed to kill cancer cells without harming healthy tissue.
The technique works by inserting microscopic synthetic rods called carbon nanotubules into cancer cells.
When the rods are exposed to near-infra red light from a laser they heat up, killing the cell, while cells without rods are left unscathed.
Details of the Stanford University work are published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
It's actually quite simple and amazing
Dr Hongjie Dai
Researcher Dr Hongjie Dai said: "One of the longstanding problems in medicine is how to cure cancer without harming normal body tissue.
"Standard chemotherapy destroys cancer cells and normal cells alike.
"That's why patients often lose their hair and suffer numerous other side effects.
"For us, the Holy Grail would be finding a way to selectively kill cancer cells and not damage healthy ones."
Many in cell
The carbon nanotubules used by the Stanford team are only half the width of a DNA molecule, and thousands can easily fit inside a typical cell.
Under normal circumstances near-infra red light passes through the body harmlessly.
But the Stanford team found that if they placed a solution of carbon nanotubules under a near-infra red laser beam, the solution heated up to about 70C in two minutes.
They then placed the tubules inside cells, and found they were quickly destroyed by the heat generated by the laser beam.
Dr Dai said: "It's actually quite simple and amazing. We're using an intrinsic property of nanotubes to develop a weapon that kills cancer."
The next step was to find a way to introduce the nantubules into cancer cells, but not healthy cells.
The researchers did this by taking advantage of the fact that, unlike normal cells, the surface of cancer cells is covered with receptors for a vitamin known as folate.
They coated the nanotubules with folate molecules, making it easy for them to pass into cancer cells, but unable to bind with their healthy cousins.
Exposure to the laser duly killed off the diseased cells, but left the healthy ones untouched.
Refined technique
The researchers believe it should be possible to refine the technique still further, for instance by attaching an antibody to a nanotubule to target a particular kind of cancer cell.
They have already started work on tailoring the technique to target lymphoma in mice.
Dr Emma Knight, of the charity Cancer Research UK, said: "Nanotechnology has a lot to offer biomedical science, and the results of this paper suggest yet another way in which it may help in the fight against cancer.
"However, this work is still at a very early stage. The researchers have shown that near-infra red light can cause nanotubes to produce heat that can kill cancer cells.
"But their work so far has focused on cells that have been grown in culture in the laboratory.
"Further research will be crucial to see whether these effects can be reproduced in the more complex environment of a tumour and, ultimately, the human body."
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/health/4734507.stm
Published: 2005/08/02 09:38:34 GMT
� BBC MMV
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Hitchhiker
Rear Admiral
Joined: 11 Aug 2004
Posts: 3514
Location: Ontario, Canada
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| Tue Aug 02, 2005 10:14 am |
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As we get better at manipulating things on a smaller scale, nanotechnology is going to become much more mainstream and prevalent. It's got a wide variety of applications, basically because once you've learned how to make it, you can make a nanite to do . . . whatever you need: repair a car, destroy a virus, keep foam from falling off a space shutle. . . . 
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madlilnerd
Duchess of Dancemat
Joined: 03 Aug 2004
Posts: 5885
Location: Slough, England
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| Tue Aug 02, 2005 12:28 pm |
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Good, it's not a little robot. Inanimate carbon rods, I can deal with, tiny robots I can't.
When I was younger, we talked about nanotech at school and I got totally freaked out and said that the tiny robots would use iron in your blood to reproduce.
It's a pretty clever progression in the world of medicine. Just...no tiny robots. They freak the hell out of me.
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Jeremy
J's Guy
Joined: 03 Oct 2002
Posts: 7823
Location: Aberdeen, Scotland
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| Wed Aug 03, 2005 8:20 am |
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Like the replicators in Stargate?
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madlilnerd
Duchess of Dancemat
Joined: 03 Aug 2004
Posts: 5885
Location: Slough, England
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| Wed Aug 03, 2005 12:02 pm |
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Yeh, I suppose. But would you like tiny robots floating around in your body?
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Hitchhiker
Rear Admiral
Joined: 11 Aug 2004
Posts: 3514
Location: Ontario, Canada
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| Wed Aug 03, 2005 2:31 pm |
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| madlilnerd wrote: | | Yeh, I suppose. But would you like tiny robots floating around in your body? |
It depends. Obviously failsafes would be built in. Your question, however, is much on the same level of "Would you like to travel across an ocean in a flying metal box?" and "Would you like a bunch of man-made chemicals and plant extracts floating around in your body?"
Once the technology is proven safe, it will eventually gain acceptance amongst the mainstream.
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Dirt
Exercise Boy
Joined: 19 May 2003
Posts: 2086
Location: a tree
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| Thu Aug 04, 2005 1:22 am |
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I'm considering going Amish nowadays 
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IntrepidIsMe
Pimp Handed
Joined: 14 Jun 2002
Posts: 13057
Location: New York
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| Thu Aug 04, 2005 1:26 am |
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I doubt they'd let you join their cult.
-------signature-------
"Nelly, I am Heathcliff! He's always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being."
-Wuthering Heights
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Dirt
Exercise Boy
Joined: 19 May 2003
Posts: 2086
Location: a tree
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| Thu Aug 04, 2005 1:48 am |
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I'll introduce them to dial up internet,
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Jeremy
J's Guy
Joined: 03 Oct 2002
Posts: 7823
Location: Aberdeen, Scotland
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| Fri Aug 05, 2005 7:49 am |
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You're too much of an internet geek,
Also it would be a bit scary, even if they did have failsafety methods. Haven't you seen the films, the robots always get round them.
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madlilnerd
Duchess of Dancemat
Joined: 03 Aug 2004
Posts: 5885
Location: Slough, England
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| Sat Aug 06, 2005 7:49 am |
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Hmm, I've never understood why anyone would desire to create AI. Just create some mindless drones and put them in my body, I wouldn't care then... but things that can think? That's like... TAPEWORM.... a sort of symbiotic parasite... like a g'oawould (the things in SG1)
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Leo Wyatt
Sweetest Angel
Joined: 25 Feb 2004
Posts: 19045
Location: Investigating A Crime Scene. What did Quark do this time?
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| Sat Aug 06, 2005 9:14 am |
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This is freaks me out. I just die and meet my maker than to have those things in me.
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Hitchhiker
Rear Admiral
Joined: 11 Aug 2004
Posts: 3514
Location: Ontario, Canada
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| Sat Aug 06, 2005 12:49 pm |
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| madlilnerd wrote: | | but things that can think? That's like... TAPEWORM.... a sort of symbiotic parasite... like a g'oawould (the things in SG1) |
Parasites aren't symbiotic.
The nanites wouldn't be getting anything from us though. At the most they'd be using electrochemical energy to recharge their power cells.
We crazy humans have developed treatments for cancer that involve dosing people with chemicals and radiation, causing their hair to fall out. As an alternative, injecting them with nanites to destroy the malignant tumour would be relatively cheap, easy, and painless for the parties involved.
Doctors are already starting to do surgeries with robotic devices and cameras rather than their actual hands. It's just an increased degree of automation over the process, and of control.
I understand that idea of having little machines running around your body may be frightening, and it frightens me too. Then again, as I mentioned before, it's just as crazy as getting into a large metal box and flying across an ocean.  But when/if they get deployed as a widespread medical practice, it will happen after being thoroughly tested and proven safe.
Artificial intelligence is a dream because we don't really understand true intelligence. What makes us intelligent, what makes us sentient? The goal of many people is to try and duplicate that, or at least get as close as they can, in order to understand themselves better. As humans, we explore who we are by testing our own limits.
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IntrepidIsMe
Pimp Handed
Joined: 14 Jun 2002
Posts: 13057
Location: New York
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| Sat Aug 06, 2005 6:55 pm |
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I don't see what the big deal is, personally. Just a new form of technology, dun duun duuun. Run for the hills.
As far as I'm concerned, if was nanotechnology or a slow painful death from cancer... I'm pretty sure I'd go for the tech.
-------signature-------
"Nelly, I am Heathcliff! He's always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being."
-Wuthering Heights
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madlilnerd
Duchess of Dancemat
Joined: 03 Aug 2004
Posts: 5885
Location: Slough, England
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| Sun Aug 07, 2005 1:08 pm |
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Cancer is natural. My own father had cancer. I think that people should just accept that they can't live forever and sometimes just let people die.
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IntrepidIsMe
Pimp Handed
Joined: 14 Jun 2002
Posts: 13057
Location: New York
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| Sun Aug 07, 2005 6:08 pm |
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My father had cancer, too. However, I'd rather he got the treatment he needed and lived, then simply died. Hes still alive today, thanks to technology. I'm pretty sure we're all happy with the outcome.
Just because something is natural, doesn't mean we should try to prevent it. Murder is a natural instinct, so should we all go around murdering people we don't like because its "natural"?
-------signature-------
"Nelly, I am Heathcliff! He's always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being."
-Wuthering Heights
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Hitchhiker
Rear Admiral
Joined: 11 Aug 2004
Posts: 3514
Location: Ontario, Canada
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| Sun Aug 07, 2005 6:55 pm |
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| madlilnerd wrote: | | Cancer is natural. My own father had cancer. I think that people should just accept that they can't live forever and sometimes just let people die. |
I do accept that I can't live forever. But I don't accept that people have to die every day from a disease that in some cases can be quite painful. When I want to die, I want it to be quiet, sudden, and painless.
We've managed to temper the common cold, so I don't see why we shouldn't try to do the same (or even cure) other diseases.
In the end, it's all about losing control. When you have a terminal illness, you've lost an amount of control in your life and your lifestyle. Potential cures or treatments bring back at least the illusion of hope, and that's what the human spirit needs to survive. Because in the end, all we really desire is control.
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Jeremy
J's Guy
Joined: 03 Oct 2002
Posts: 7823
Location: Aberdeen, Scotland
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| Mon Aug 08, 2005 12:25 pm |
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| IntrepidIsMe wrote: | My father had cancer, too. However, I'd rather he got the treatment he needed and lived, then simply died. Hes still alive today, thanks to technology. I'm pretty sure we're all happy with the outcome.
Just because something is natural, doesn't mean we should try to prevent it. Murder is a natural instinct, so should we all go around murdering people we don't like because its "natural"? |
We now accept being gay because it is, so why not?
Last edited by Jeremy on Tue Aug 09, 2005 10:15 am; edited 1 time in total
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Arellia
The Quiet One
Joined: 23 Jan 2003
Posts: 4425
Location: Dallas, TX
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| Mon Aug 08, 2005 1:15 pm |
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FINALLY! Nanotech is getting some recognition. I'm ecstatic about the field. Nanotechnology holds more promise than stem cells and most other forms of treating our more stubborn diseases. Manipulating things on a scale that small, there's very few things that nanotechnology could not improve...including problems like HIV, which has also had promising studies performed in the field of nanotechnology.
If anybody wants to check out more on nanotechnology, I highly recommend www.foresight.org . It's a pretty informative site, and among the most renowned in the science. The scientists working in the field are some very brilliant people, and they have very noble goals. In my opinion.
-------signature-------
Not the doctor... yet
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IntrepidIsMe
Pimp Handed
Joined: 14 Jun 2002
Posts: 13057
Location: New York
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| Mon Aug 08, 2005 3:51 pm |
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| Jeremy wrote: | | IntrepidIsMe wrote: | My father had cancer, too. However, I'd rather he got the treatment he needed and lived, then simply died. Hes still alive today, thanks to technology. I'm pretty sure we're all happy with the outcome.
Just because something is natural, doesn't mean we should try to prevent it. Murder is a natural instinct, so should we all go around murdering people we don't like because its "natural"? |
We now accept being gay because it is so why not? |
Can you throw a comma in there or something, because I totally don't understand that,
-------signature-------
"Nelly, I am Heathcliff! He's always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being."
-Wuthering Heights
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Cathexis
The Angel of Avalon
Joined: 26 Dec 2001
Posts: 5901
Location: ~~ Where Dreams Have No End�
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| Mon Aug 08, 2005 11:52 pm |
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WOW....I mean........WOW. It's amazing to know that we have "harnessed" this technology. Although I must agree with those of you who are slightly frightened by the mere thought of tiny machines zipping around inside our bodies...but if it's proven to work, then by all means...zip away!
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Jeremy
J's Guy
Joined: 03 Oct 2002
Posts: 7823
Location: Aberdeen, Scotland
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| Tue Aug 09, 2005 10:16 am |
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| IntrepidIsMe wrote: | | Jeremy wrote: | | IntrepidIsMe wrote: | My father had cancer, too. However, I'd rather he got the treatment he needed and lived, then simply died. Hes still alive today, thanks to technology. I'm pretty sure we're all happy with the outcome.
Just because something is natural, doesn't mean we should try to prevent it. Murder is a natural instinct, so should we all go around murdering people we don't like because its "natural"? |
We now accept being gay because it is so why not? |
Can you throw a comma in there or something, because I totally don't understand that, |
Done so,
And I don't know enough to say much about the topic. I think in some ways it is good, but I'd be a little freaked out about mini robots moving about in me. I'd probably do it though if I needed it.
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madlilnerd
Duchess of Dancemat
Joined: 03 Aug 2004
Posts: 5885
Location: Slough, England
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| Tue Aug 09, 2005 3:37 pm |
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The coolest thing that people working in nanotechnology did was make that guitar that was so small that it's strings were only an aton thick each. Oh, and the car that was the size of a grain of rice was cool too.
| Quote: | | When you have a terminal illness, you've lost an amount of control in your life and your lifestyle. |
I'm pro euthanasia.
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Puck
The Texan
Joined: 05 Jan 2004
Posts: 5596
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| Tue Aug 09, 2005 4:07 pm |
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From what I read in this article, these aren't really "little robots" or anything moving about in you, at least not yet. I think some of yall are picturing borg nanoprobes, and I don't think that's really what these are. They are just microscopic "rods" that heat up when exposed to infared radiation-thus killing the cancerous cells.
Anyways, I would be all for receiving mostly any treatment that would save my life, since I do feel that it is rather valueable (not to be conceited or anything ).
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Cathexis
The Angel of Avalon
Joined: 26 Dec 2001
Posts: 5901
Location: ~~ Where Dreams Have No End�
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| Wed Aug 10, 2005 1:50 am |
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Yeah, you have point there, Puck!
Just rods, eh? Well then no problem, nanotech me! (only if I have cancer tho lol)
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