Nanotechnology Now - Press Release: Efforts to Use Smart Nanocarriers to Cure Leukemia Yield Promising Results

Home > Press > Efforts to Use Smart Nanocarriers to Cure Leukemia Yield Promising Results

Abstract:
Academic researchers in Iran succeeded in the synthesis of a type of smart drug delivery system that is used in the treatment of leukemia.

Efforts to Use Smart Nanocarriers to Cure Leukemia Yield Promising Results

Tehran, Iran | Posted on June 29th, 2015

The system is biocompatible and it slowly releases the drug to the target. The synthesis and evaluation of the smart nanocarrier were carried out at laboratorial scale.

Leukemia is a type of bone marrow and blood cancer, which is caused by the uncontrolled proliferation of blood white cells, and mostly results in death. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common aggressive malignant cancer in children. Daunorubicin is an anticancer drug with high side effects, including bone marrow repression and heart toxicity, which is widely used for the treatment of ALL.

The combination of gold – aptamer nanoparticles has been used in this research to carry daunorubicin drug into the target tissue.

The system has been designed in a way that the drug is released only at pH values of cancerous cells. According to the tests, this system significantly decreases the side effects of daunorubicin drug in the control cells, and it increases its therapeutic effects in the target cells in comparison with the drug without carriers.

Among various nanoparticles, gold particles have attracted the attention of many researchers. Simple synthesis, high ratio of surface to volume and biocompatibility are among the advantages that enable the particles to be used as very appropriate carriers for chemical drugs, including daunorubicin. The aptamer used in the structure of the nanocarrier acts as an agent for the target drug delivery purposes.

Results of the research have been published in International Journal of Pharmaceutics, vol. 489, issue 1-2, 2015, pp. 311-317.

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