Nanoteranostics – the future of oncology

Professor Kabashin: nanoteranostics will win oncological diseases

Andrey Kabashin, Scientific Director of the Engineering Physics Institute of Biomedicine, Professor of the MEPhI National Research Institute and the University of Aix-Marseille, France (Aix-Marseille University), in an interview with RIA Novosti correspondent Yulia Osipova, spoke about the global prospects of nanoteranostics.

– Andrey Viktorovich, why did the idea arise to allocate the Engineering Physics Institute of Biomedicine of the MEPhI National Research University into a separate scientific and educational unit?

– The Institute of Biomedicine is one of the five new structural divisions of MEPhI created in a new multidisciplinary trend. In the USSR, education was divorced from science: they were engaged in education in institutes, and science in the RAS. In Russia, all institutes abruptly became universities, but the essence has not changed: the system of faculties and departments is not focused on scientific research, but on teaching students in different specialties.

The new structural divisions of the NRU MEPhI are, in fact, research institutes based on the university. In such departments, students have the opportunity not only to study, but also to participate in published and funded scientific research. In addition, such a system allows the faculty to develop themselves by teaching students.

– Why is the main scientific focus on biomedicine?

– Over the past 10-15 years, the center of scientific interests in the world has noticeably shifted from physics, which was largely built for defense needs, towards health sciences. People are willing to invest a lot of money either in safety or in health. This trend implies the development of fundamentally new interdisciplinary directions at the intersection of classical sciences – physics, chemistry, biology, materials science, engineering… Sciences interbreed, and this symbiosis creates new technologies, methods, devices for biomedical applications.

Biomedicine specialists are in high demand all over the world. Take positron emission tomography: medical education alone is not enough to work on this equipment, engineering education is required, but with a refraction for biomedicine. Such a niche should be filled.

The Obninsk branch of MEPhI has always had a strong medical faculty. Now the idea of combining the existing educational base in Obninsk with the powerful foundation of MEPhI in nuclear medicine is being implemented.

– What is modern nuclear medicine?

– This is a huge layer of high-tech medicine, which uses radiation from radionuclides and other sources, as well as beams of accelerated ionizing particles (for example, protons) for the treatment and diagnosis of diseases, in particular, oncological diseases. Cancer is our main enemy, because it accounts for more than 13 percent of all deaths.

Positron emission tomography is unique in that it allows you to register molecular biological changes before organic anatomical changes have occurred, which is extremely important for early detection of tumors. On the other hand, beta and gamma radiation of some radionuclides is extremely effective for the selective destruction of cancer cells and the treatment of oncological diseases.

– Now everyone is talking about proton therapy. Is this really a promising direction?

– Yes, there is a real boom in this type of therapy all over the world, appropriate systems are being installed everywhere. Russia is a little behind in this sense, but Russia has unique developments that make it possible to significantly reduce the cost of proton accelerators and treatment systems based on them.

Proton installations are good because they allow you to get a 3D image of the localization of the tumor, after which proton sources pointwise affect the tumor. This is especially effective for combating aggressive oncological diseases such as brain and eyeball tumors.

In Russia, nuclear medicine has long been embodied in specific developments, but few people knew about them, since Russian scientists rarely published in leading journals. Russian science boiled in its own juice.

– Was this one of the reasons for your departure from the country in the 90s?

– I was not ready to disqualify in my specialty just out of a sense of patriotism, despite all my love for the Motherland. In North America, and then in Europe, I managed not only to become part of the Western scientific system, but also to determine its success in many ways.

Now the main task for people like me returning to Russia in one role or another is to train talented young people to work at the modern level of world science and within the established international system. In other words, you need to learn how to play and win on the international scientific field according to its rules. Now in science it is pointless to isolate yourself from the whole world. This was understood by the Chinese and many others who are now successfully adapting to the world system.

We have many highly qualified specialists and good developments. In particular, we have excellent developments in nanotechnology, nanophotonics for biomedical applications. In addition, there are serious developments in the field of positron electron tomography equipment, a whole series of developed unique radionuclides that are used for the diagnosis and therapy of oncological diseases. Finally, there are unique developments in the field of image recognition technologies, decision-making and digital image processing, which can significantly improve the accuracy of cancer diagnosis.

– In what area do you expect the next breakthrough?

– In our opinion, one of the most promising areas may be the combination of nanotechnology with developments in nuclear medicine. The point is to deliver radionuclides to the tumor area without irradiating other tissues. The "delivery" of radionuclides is the main problem of nuclear medicine. They often live only 2-3 hours, and it is necessary to make sure that they spend this time not just in the bloodstream, but pointwise at the site of the tumor. It is in the combination of nanotechnology and nuclear medicine methods that we expect the next breakthrough.

– How can this be achieved technically?

– I will give one of the possible examples. We take some biocompatible and biodegradable nanoparticle, say, silicon – one of the safest of all inorganic materials. We "plant" a radionuclide on it, for example, rhenium-188. The particle "brings" it to the location of the tumor. The radionuclide cures the tumor, and then the particle dissolves and is excreted from the body through the kidneys, with urine, without any side effects. This example implies the use of nanoparticles as containers for the delivery of radiopharmaceuticals for the destruction of cancerous tumors.

Our global goal is nanoteranostics – a combination of diagnostics and therapy on a nanoscale scale. It is assumed that such methods will allow the destruction of cancer cells and tumors with subcellular accuracy determined by the size of the active region near the nanoparticles, and the nanoparticles themselves will be removed from the body after a diagnostic and/or therapeutic procedure without any undesirable secondary effects. We want to use nanotechnology to secure the process of diagnosis and therapy as much as possible.

The locality of the nanoparticle will allow cancer to be cured so that the body does not suffer from the consequences of treatment. Unfortunately, chemotherapy and radiation therapy often destroy everything in a row, people die not from cancer, but from the consequences of its treatment. Nanoteranostics will help to avoid this.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru  26.09.2016