Graphene Oxide against cancer
Will graphene cure?
"Search" No. 10-2015
Graphene has a new property: it neutralizes cancer stem cells without affecting healthy ones. This is reported by The University of Manchester News (Graphene shows potential as novel anti-cancer therapeutic strategy – VM).
Biologists from the University of Manchester, the same place where physicists – future Nobel Prize winners in 2010 – for the first time received a new promising high-tech material with a thickness of one carbon atom, graphene, have made a discovery that can reverse the development of many types of cancer.
Michael Lisanti and Aravind Vijayaraghavan published in the journal Oncotarget the results of experiments with graphene oxide, which demonstrate its action as an anticancer agent selectively targeting cancer stem cells (Fiorillo et al., Graphene oxide selectively targets cancer stem cells, across multiple tumor types: Implications for non-toxic cancer treatment, via “differentiation-based nano-therapy", in the public domain – VM).
In combination with existing treatments, this can lead to a reduction in tumors, as well as prevent the spread of cancer and its recurrence. As Professor Lisanti explains, cancer stem cells give rise to many different types of tumor cells, and they are responsible for both cancer metastasis and the return of tumors after therapy. The reason for this is that conventional radiation and chemotherapy, killing the bulk of cancer cells, usually do not affect cancer stem cells, but they differentiate with the formation of small spherical clusters of tumor cells. Manchester scientists have seen that graphene oxide flakes prevent the formation of these tumor spheres, but more than that – they cause the differentiation of cancer stem cells into non-cancer stem cells.
The authors tested graphene oxide against six different types of cancer – breast and pancreatic, lung, brain, ovarian and prostate.
Flakes of carbon monoxide monolayer prevented the formation of spherical tumors in all cases, blocking the processes occurring on the surface of cancer stem cells (figure: K. Novoselov, press release of the University of Manchester – VM).
"Our results showed that graphene oxide is not toxic to healthy cells, therefore, anti–cancer therapy with its use will have fewer side effects," notes Lisanti.
Graphene oxide is stable in water, which is important for its use in biomedicine, it easily attaches to the cell wall, and therefore can be considered as a candidate for targeted drug delivery. However, its own anti-cancer properties were discovered unexpectedly.
"Naturally, like any discovery, a new property of a graphene derivative must undergo intensive research before being applied in the clinic, and we hope that the encouraging results obtained on laboratory cell cultures can be used to develop cancer therapy techniques," Vijayaraghavan said in a press release from the University of Manchester.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru11.03.2015