Magnetic Nanoparticles Remove Ovarian Cancer Cells from the Abdominal Cavity

[MagickMuffin]

A major complicating factor in the treatment of ovarian cancer is that malignant cells are often shed into the patient’s abdominal cavity. These cells can then spread to other tissues, seeding new tumors that make effective therapy difficult. To overcome this problem, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology created magnetic nanoparticles that can selectively bind to and remove ovarian tumor cells from abdominal cavity fluid. John F. McDonald led the research team that reported their work in the journal Nanomedicine.

Research by other investigators had identified a protein known as EphA2 as a highly selective marker for free-floating ovarian cancer cells. Dr. McDonald and his collaborators coated magnetic cobalt-iron oxide nanoparticles with a molecular mimic of the natural ligand for this protein, a molecule known as ephrin-A1, to serve as a trap for ovarian cancer cells floating in ascites fluid, the liquid found in the intestinal cavity. The idea behind this approach is that the nanoparticles could be added to ascites fluid and then trapped with a magnetic, removing any ovarian cancer cells that had bound to the eprhin-A1 mimic.

They first tested their nanoparticles using ascites fluid from mice with human ovarian tumors and found that they could trap free-floating tumor cells using magnetic separation. They then repeated this experiment using ascites fluid obtained from four women with ovarian cancer, and again showed that they could remove all of the EphA2-positive cells from the intestinal fluid samples. The researchers suggest that these nanoparticles could be used in a system that removes ascites fluid from the intestinal cavity, using a relatively non-invasive method akin to dialysis, in conjunction with standard ovarian cancer therapy.

This work is detailed in a paper titled, “Selective removal of ovarian cancer cells from human ascites fluid using magnetic nanoparticles.” An abstract of this paper is available at the journal’s Web site.

http://nanotechwire.com/news.asp?nid=10138



:wow: this could be very promising. Thought you might enjoy it.

[Celebration]

1. Would love this to pan out

Ovarian cancer is particularly nasty.

I heard Jerry Tennant on Coast to Coast the other night talking about voltage in cells, and correcting it with a device that he has. I consider stuff like this to be related.

[northernlights]

3. I'm sorry but I just googled Jerry Tennant and

"voltage in cells." What I found is so grossly oversimplified, incomplete and flat out bogus it was embarrassing to look at.

Cellular biology is a wonderfully complex dynamic and yes, magnetic charges are involved, but polarity is involved in every metabolic pathway, every neurologic pathway, every enzymatic reaction, photosynthesis, intracellular and extracellular activity.

[Celebration]

4. It was probably dumbed down for us

The guy is actually pretty brilliant........he helped pioneer cataract operations with implanted lenses decades ago. And, look at his bio. He ain't dumb. He mysteriously had chronic fatigue to the point of quitting surgery and being a practicing MD, and turned to alternative medicine. Eventually it led him to a root canal and an infection related to that. Once the tooth was removed (properly, with the bone smoothed) he started to heal.

But here is the thing with his device. Basically it is a knockooff of a Russian device called a Scenar, that uses millimiter waves (????? or something like that). Basically it measures something having to do with skin resistance, and then puts in what the body needs. It is somewhat similar to a TENS machine, but with different output, but also an input from skin resistance.

And, I am sure that the scientific explanation for this is way more complex than is set out in the web page.

It kind of irks me that he doesn't give the Russians credit.........he used to, before he developed his own device.

He used to go around the country selling Scenars. The thing about the Scenar is that there are all different kinds at all different prices. It is hard to know what you are really getting.

[Celebration]

5. Okay here is the Scenar explanation

http://www.scenar.info/scenar-information.html

I feel sure this is how the Tennant device works, because he basically copied this and marketed his own after he was helped so much by the Russian Scenar.

[northernlights]

2. biochemistry

love it. I can't wait to see what they start doing with buckyballs :D