Cancer cells may be destroyed by nanobubbles

A new possible technique to destroy cancer cells seems to have been identified by a few scientists. Researchers from Rice University claim to have found a novel method for singling out individual diseased cells and killing them with minute explosions. The scientists apparently utilized lasers to create ‘nanobubbles’ by zapping gold nanoparticles within cells.

By examining cancer cells, they appear to have discovered that they could tune the lasers to craft either tiny, vivid bubbles that appear to be noticeable but safe or big bubbles that rupture the cells. Nanobubbles are said to be developed when gold nanoparticles are apparently hit by short laser pulses. The short-lived bubbles are claimed to be exceedingly vivid and can be made smaller or bigger by fluctuating the power of the laser. Since they are believed to be observable under a microscope, nanobubbles may be utilized to either identify sick cells or to trail the explosions that are killing them.

Rice physicist Dmitri Lapotko, the lead researcher on the project, commented, “Single-cell targeting is one of the most touted advantages of nanomedicine, and our approach delivers on that promise with a localized effect inside an individual cell. The idea is to spot and treat unhealthy cells early, before a disease progresses to the point of making people extremely ill.”

In preceding studies, Lapotko and colleagues at the Laboratory for Laser Cytotechnologies at the A.V. Lykov Heat and Mass Transfer Institute in Minsk, Belarus, used nanobubbles to arterial plaque. They appear to have discovered that they could explode all through the deposits that obstruct arteries.

Lapotko mentioned, “The bubbles work like a jackhammer.”

In the present study, Lapotko and Rice colleague Jason Hafner, associate professor of physics and astronomy and of chemistry, examined the method on leukemia cells and cells from head and neck cancers. They apparently fastened antibodies to the nanoparticles so they could aim only the cancer cells, and they discovered that the method seemed to be effectual in finding and destroying the cancer cells.

Lapotko is of the opinion that the nanobubble technology may be applied for ‘theranostics,’ a single process that supposedly merges identification and therapy. Additionally, since the cell-bursting nanobubbles also surface on microscopes in real time, Lapotko believes that the technique may be applied for post-therapeutic evaluation, or what physicians may frequently call as ‘guidance.’

The research is published in the journal Nanotechnology.