Nanoparticle Detects the Deadliest Cancer Cells in Blood

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Researchers have created nanoparticles called nanoflares that could potentially be a vital component in the fight against cancer in the upcoming years.  These nanoflares identify cancer cells in blood by literally lighting them up; each nanoflare contains a chunk of gold coated with flourescent molecules and pieces of DNA that link to specific RNA found in certain cancer cells. The idea is that these nanoflares enter infected blood and and enter cells. The identification of cancer cells will be known when the nanoflares deposit their DNA into the blood cells. Should the deposited DNA link up to the cell's RNA and in turn create flourescent molecules, this blood cell will light up, thus marking it as a cancer cell since the RNA is specific to certain cancer cells.

Results published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences have shown positive resutls of this method using mice blood. The next step is to configure these nanoflares to work for humans. While this may not be a cure for cancer, the nanoflare technology could prove itself to be crucial in the diagnosis of cancer. If a hospital lab could identify cancer in a short amount of time solely from a patient's blood sample, the diagnosis time could be cut drastically, leading to quicker approaches to attack and treat the cancer. This technology could also prove to be important in cancerous tumors, in which cancer cells can bunk up in small numbers, especially since they can "hide" in between healthy body cells. By distinguishing the cancer cells from healthy cells, more efficient measures can be taken to target just those cancer cells without killing too many healthy cells, as is the case currently with measures such as chemotherapy. Overall, while this technology will need a lot of work before in can enter the mainstream health system, it can prove to be vital to fighting cancer.