Magnet Kills Cancer Cells
Magnet Kills Cancer Cells
By: Arlene Gentallan
Scientists in South Korea devised an extraordinary way to trigger cancer cells to self-destruct. How did they do this? Here's where magnet does amazing tricks.
Our body has an efficient mechanism of getting rid of old or damaged cells. That is, they are programmed to self-destruct (aka. apoptosis) and then be cleared away by the immune system, giving way for new healthy cells to grow.
But in the case of cancer cells, instead of self-destructing, they continue to grow uncontrollably, even when they no longer serve any useful function for the body. What's more, they rapidly multiply in number, invade normal tissues and organs, and compete for nutrients to sustain their exponential growth.
Yeah, sounds like a zombie. You get the point?
Here's the trick...
Both normal and cancel cells share one thing in common, they have a receptor that can be activated to initiate programmed cell death. It's called the death receptor 4 (DR4).
Scientist used an ingenious method to activate these receptor in cancer cells. They incorporated iron oxide nanoparticles and bonded it with antibodies. These antibodies bind to death receptor 4 in cancer cells. Scientist then applied magnetic field which causes the iron nanoparticles to form clusters in the DR4 which triggers the cancer cell to kill itself.
They used this method in a live zebra fish and bowel cancer cell. After 24 hours, more than half of the cancer cells died in the experiment.
In another experiment with a live zebra fish, this method, utilizing iron nanoparticles and magnetic field, caused the poor creature to develop an abnormal tail.
Their research is published in the journal Nature Materials.
It's a promising treatment against cancer, but according to Henry Scowcroft, it's a "extremely preliminary research" and it's a "long way long way to go before it's ready to test in humans, but research like this shows just how ingenious scientists around the world are becoming in the quest to beat cancer".
By: Arlene Gentallan
 |
| Magnet Kills Cancer Cells |
Scientists in South Korea devised an extraordinary way to trigger cancer cells to self-destruct. How did they do this? Here's where magnet does amazing tricks.
Our body has an efficient mechanism of getting rid of old or damaged cells. That is, they are programmed to self-destruct (aka. apoptosis) and then be cleared away by the immune system, giving way for new healthy cells to grow.
But in the case of cancer cells, instead of self-destructing, they continue to grow uncontrollably, even when they no longer serve any useful function for the body. What's more, they rapidly multiply in number, invade normal tissues and organs, and compete for nutrients to sustain their exponential growth.
Yeah, sounds like a zombie. You get the point?
Here's the trick...
Both normal and cancel cells share one thing in common, they have a receptor that can be activated to initiate programmed cell death. It's called the death receptor 4 (DR4).
Scientist used an ingenious method to activate these receptor in cancer cells. They incorporated iron oxide nanoparticles and bonded it with antibodies. These antibodies bind to death receptor 4 in cancer cells. Scientist then applied magnetic field which causes the iron nanoparticles to form clusters in the DR4 which triggers the cancer cell to kill itself.
They used this method in a live zebra fish and bowel cancer cell. After 24 hours, more than half of the cancer cells died in the experiment.
In another experiment with a live zebra fish, this method, utilizing iron nanoparticles and magnetic field, caused the poor creature to develop an abnormal tail.
Their research is published in the journal Nature Materials.
It's a promising treatment against cancer, but according to Henry Scowcroft, it's a "extremely preliminary research" and it's a "long way long way to go before it's ready to test in humans, but research like this shows just how ingenious scientists around the world are becoming in the quest to beat cancer".
