Innovative Light Therapy Reaches Deep Tumors (IMAGE)
Caption
Using a mouse model of cancer, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have devised a way to apply light-based therapy to deep tissues never before accessible. Instead of shining an outside light, they delivered light directly to tumor cells, along with a photosensitive source of free radicals that can be activated by the light to destroy cancer. And they accomplished this using materials already approved for use in cancer patients. The light source is produced during positron emission tomography (PET) scans that doctors use to diagnose cancer. The photosensitive materials are titanium dioxide nanoparticles. Shown here is one such particle (purple) carrying the iron-binding protein transferrin (blue and green) and the light-sensitive cancer drug titanocene (red). The study appears March 9 in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.
Credit
N. Kotagiri
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