Tag Archives: Ovarian cancer

Biomechanics of Rat Ovarian cells Charactercized

Researchers characterize biomechanics of ovarian cells in mice according to their phenotype at early, intermediate, and late-aggressive stages of cancer

Using ovarian surface epithelial cells from mice, researchers from Virginia Tech have released findings from a study that they believe will help in cancer risk assessment, cancer diagnosis, and treatment efficiency in a technical journal:Nanomedicine.

By studying the viscoelastic properties of the ovarian cells of mice, they were able to identify differences between early stages of ovarian cancer and more advanced and aggressive phenotypes.

BRAIN CANCER STOPPED USING VENOM

BRAIN CANCER STOPPED BY SCORPION VENOM
Cutting the Spread of Tumors
Scientists have been looking at chlorotoxin, a peptide in scorpion venom, for the past decade as a way to target cancer cells. And the big payday has arrived. By combining nanoparticles with a scorpion venom mix already being investigated for treating brain cancer, University of Washington researchers found they could cut the spread of cancerous cells by 98 percent, compared to 45 percent for the scorpion venom alone (www.uwnews.org).
This is the first time that nanoparticles, which are ultrafine particles, have been combined with a treatment that physically stops cancer’s spread. “People talk about the treatment being more effective with nanoparticles but they don’t know how much, maybe 5 percent or 10 percent,” said Miqin Zhang, professor of materials science and engineering.  “This was quite a surprise to us.”  She is lead author of the study.
Chlorotoxin binds to a surface protein on many types of tumors, including brain cancer.  Chlorotoxin also disrupts the spread of tumors.
The Whole is Greater than the Parts
The researchers investigated chlorotoxin when it is attached to nanoparticles and found that the treatment’s effect doubles compared to chlorotoxin alone.  Adding nanoparticles often improves a therapy, partly because the combination lasts longer in the body and so has a better chance of reaching the tumor.  Combining also boosts the effect because therapeutic molecules clump around each nanoparticle.
Slowing the spread of cancer would be especially useful for treating highly invasive tumors, such as brain cancer.  The technique could hypothetically also slow the spread of other tumors with the same kind of activity, such as breast, colon, skin, lung, prostate, and ovarian cancers.