Cancer Detecting Nanoparticles

Filed in archive Diagnostics, Methodologies and Instrumentation , Nanomedicine on May 30, 2008

Scientists have designed peptide-coated iron oxide nanoparticles that can seek out tumor cells and make detection using magnetic resonance imaging possible.

The team created peptide-coated iron oxide nanoparticles - particles billionths of a meter in size. The researchers injected the particles into mice and tested their ability to locate a brain tumor cell called U87MG. Sun and his collaborators concentrated specifically on the nanoparticle's size and the thickness of the peptide coating, which ensures the nanoparticle attaches to the tumor cell.

The nanoparticle is about 8.4 nanometers in overall diameter, about six times smaller than the size of particles currently used in medicine, with a two-nanometer thick peptide coating - about 10 times thinner than the coating available in popular MRI contrast agents such as Feridex.
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Image: The illustration (top) shows how a RGD peptide-coated iron oxide nanoparticle binds with an integrin-rich tumor cell. At bottom left is a MRI of a mouse with the implanted U87MG tumor (red circle). At bottom right is an optical image that reveals iron oxide nanoparticles (blue) amassed in the tumor area (pink). Credit: Jin Xie, Brown University