Jonathan Wilhoite Blog: Bacteria Based Nanorobots May Help Treat Cancer

Friday, August 26, 2016

Bacteria Based Nanorobots May Help Treat Cancer

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Bacteria based nanorobots are now being developed by researchers to help in cancer treatments by way of accurately targeting tumour cells in the body through these minute bots that transports the drug directly on affected cells.

Bacteria based nanorobots getting the nod

Medical experts lauded this invention as a revolutionary step forward into the treatment of cancer and help improve health conditions for many who are plagued with the deadly disease.

The work was recently published in the Journal Nature Nanotechnology, where researchers from the Nanorobotics Laboratory of Polytechnique Montreal.

Prof. Sylvain Martel, who head the research team, points out that conventional chemotherapy treatments often get to affect all cells in the body and do not isolate it to the specific or affected cells. As the drugs travel through the bloodstream, it affects other healthy cells along the way.

“So we thought that if we could navigate it directly from point A to point B where we need to do the treatment, exactly inside the tumour, all those agents would become extremely efficient,” Martel said.

This is when they started to develop bacteria-based nanorobots that would help the magnetococcus marinus bacteria that contain magnetically metallic crystals, which can be injected close to the affected tumour site and controlled by computer-guided magnetic fields.

Nanorobots testing

During the testing phase, Sylvain and his team were able to successfully inject the nanorobots into laboratory mice with colorectal cancer tumour. As the expected, the nanorobots did its job.

The nanorobots gravitated towards the tumour cells that it found to be low-oxygen areas.

“When you’ve got something with propulsion, navigation, and sensors, it starts looking like the nanorobots of the future,” he said, adding: “…They behave exactly like futuristic nanorobots and deliver the drug exactly where the drug will be the most effective,” says Martel

Martel also says that the possibilities of using these nanorobots are endless, not just limited to treating patents with cancer. He said it also has a high potential for use to deliver diagnostic and imaging agents throughout the body.

They are hoping that clinical trials be undertaken soon, but they are also still trying to study if the bacteria they are working on for the nanorobots are safe for humans .

The National Cancer Institute reports that there is an increasing number of cancer incidents all over the world. This year, more than 1.5 million estimated new cases of cancer were diagnosed in the United States alone and almost 600,000 are expected to die from various cancer types.

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