Drug-filled particles could diagnose and treat cancer

A new study published in Particle & Particle Systems Characterization shows how such nanoparticles can be combined to secure the effective delivery of cancer drugs to tumour cells, and how they can be given properties to make them visible in MR scanners.

The team, which consisted of scientists from Karolinska Institutet (KI), the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, and Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, developed so-called theranostic nanoparticles by combining therapy and diagnostics in a nanomaterial.

‘For this study, we produced theranostic nanoparticles able to make pinpoint deliveries of drug payloads to breast cancer cells,’ said Prof Eva Malmström of the School of Chemical Science and Engineering at KTH. ‘They are also detectable in an MR scanner and can therefore be used diagnostically. The building blocks that we use are biodegradable and show no signs of toxicity.’

The new study is said to have resulted in a method of making such theranostic nanoparticles that spontaneously form themselves out of tailored macromolecules.