Silica nanoparticles in the treatment of Pancreatic Cancers

While working in a tertiary healthcare hospital, I have daily encounters with patients suffering from cancer. Their treatments and cost of drugs is a torture for their relatives besides accepting the fact that diagnosis of cancer in most of cases is a death warrant. Recently I was going through an article by Dr Andre Nel who has expressed a promising research by UCAL’s California  Nano Systems Institute and  Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center have created a  technology  in solving some of the problems  of using chemotherapy to treat pancreatic cancer.

The study is published in the Journal ACS Nano.

The scientists have combined two drugs within a specially designed mesoporous silica nano particle which looks like a glass bubble. These drugs work together to shrink human pancreatic tumors in mice as successfully as the current standard dosage but at one twelfth the dosage . This lower dosage means reducing the cost and the side effects that people suffer from the current method.

The study was led by Dr Huan Meng, assistant adjunct professor of medicine and Dr Andre Nel distinguished professor of medicine both at Jonsson Cancer Center.

Pancreatic cancer is a dreadful cancer with a five year survival rate of five percent, and is very difficult to be detected at early stages. Symptoms usually appear at  advanced stages.  Many people remain un diagnosed till the tumors are beyond the limits of surgery. Chemotherapy remains the only viable treatment option.. Gemcitabine is often used for pancreatic cancers but it too has a limited impact.

Recent research has found that combining Gemcitabine with another drug Paclitaxel improves the overall treatment  effect. The current Abraxane – a nano complex containing Paclitaxel – and Gemcitabine are given separately which works , but the drugs may stay in the body for different lengths of time because of different  half lives and with the result the beneficial effect required is not synchronized.

The silica nano particle technology is that Gemcitabine and Paclitaxel are placed together in one special lipid – coated nano particle  at the exact ratio that makes them synergistic with one another when co delivered at the tumor site, giving the best possible outcome by using single drug carrier. This is how the dose is reduced with effective combination. The comparative studies were carried with mice in which the human tumors were surgically implanted into the abdomen in order to more closely emulate the natural point of origin of pancreatic tumors and provide a better parallel to the tumors in humans. It was found that tumors in mice receiving Silica nano particles shrank more than the comparative controls. Also the metastatic tumors spreading to nearby organs too were eradicated.

Maha darakshan

darakshanmahaa@gmail.com