Oncotripsy
Ultrasound device destroys cancer cells without harming healthy ones
Georgy Golovanov, Hi-tech+
Ultrasound waves have been used in the treatment of cancer before, but they acted indiscriminately, destroying healthy cells along the way.
The study of the possibilities of selective ultrasound exposure to cancer tissue began five years ago. Then scientists from the California Institute of Technology realized that the physical differences between cancer and healthy cells – size, wall thickness, organelle size – can affect how they vibrate when bombarded by sound waves and how these vibrations trigger cell death.
At the first stage, they created a mathematical model to see how cells would respond to different ultrasound frequencies. In 2016, an article was published in which they talked about the gap in the so-called growth rate of the resonance of cancer and healthy cells. This meant that, in theory, a carefully tuned sound could cause the cell membrane to vibrate so violently that it would collapse, and healthy cells would remain intact. The authors called this process "oncotripsy," according to a press release from Ultrasound Can Selectively Kill Cancer Cells.
Article by Mittelstein et al. Selective ablation of cancer cells with low intensity pulsed ultrasound is published in the journal Applied Physics Letters – VM.
After receiving funding, the team produced a prototype device that allows selectively affecting cells of various types – both healthy and cancerous. However, with the current prototype, it is impossible to destroy all malignant cells with ultrasound, some will definitely remain, and the tumor will grow again.
Now scientists hope that they will be able to destroy cancer cells with ultrasound in such a way that the immune system would perceive their death as an injury, and not apoptosis, that is, natural death. Then white blood cells will rush to the tumor, which will attack the remaining cancer cells.
So far, such a system is being tested in Petri dishes, but the team is going to move on to tumor tissues, and then to animal experiments.
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