If you get skin cancer, there aren't many treatments today that offer nicer/healthy looking skin prior to removal. Indeed, the main treatment that dermatologists do today for patients that have skin cancer involves physically removing the discoloured mass itself. After the fact, people are often left with a not-so-nice scar, disfigured skin and damaged DNA.
This may not be the case for much longer. Thanks to scientists at Northwestern University, treating skin cancer might become as easy as rubbing on a nanoparticle-filled lotion. Can you imagine how nice this would be for patients?! The team of researchers was led by Chad A. Mirkin and Amy S. Paller. Specifically, they applied gold nanoparticles coated with densely packed oriented strands of small interfering RNA to both mouse skin and engineered human skin.
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The mechanism of this "gold-filled nanoparticle lotion" was interesting in that after it had passed the outer layer, the particles would switch off targeted genes inside skin cells. For instance, particles applied to engineered human skin decreased expression of a gene coding for epidermal growth factor receptor by 52%. This protein is overexpressed in a number of cancer cell types. Not only did the researchers observe the particles penetrating skin, they also saw them leave. This is is crutial, because noone wants gold nanoparticles entering the body. In fact, what was really interesting is that ten days after treatment, mice retained only 2% of the gold from the originally absorbed particles.
So, many of you are probably wondering what nanoparticle are?
Nanoparticles are particles with a diameter between 1 nm and 100 nm (50 000 times smaller than a human hair!). Indeed, because they are so small, they are able to cover a large surface area, yet still maintain a very small volume. This characteristic is what makes these particles so unique and able to make products have very interesting properties. For example, this small volume and large surface area can often change the intermolecular attraction forces of molecules, altering their electrical and magnetic behavior.
What you may not know is that nanoparticles deposit on the walls of our alveoli. No one knows for sure if this is a problem. However, the effects of cigarette smoke nanoparticles on the lungs are well established...but that is a whole other article.
The field of nanotechnology is ever-evolving. However, now that nanoparticles are being used to repair genes affected by cancer, one can't help but be left with the feeling of the endless possibilities of these particles. It is only a matter of time before more and more miraculous discoveries are adopted and used for the better good of humanity.
References:
Proc.Natl. Acad.Sci. USA, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1118425109
Chemical & Engineering News Magazine. (July 9, 2012). Published by the American Chemical Society
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