美国科学家近日找到一种破坏癌细胞的新方法，即先向癌细胞注射碳纳米管，然后用无线电波进行摧毁。相关论文10月24日在线发表于《癌症》（Cancer）上。
此次研究由美国德州大学的Steven Curley领导完成。他和同事向兔子的肝脏肿瘤细胞注射碳纳米管，用无线电波对碳进行加热，结果成功地杀灭了癌细胞，而对附近的健康细胞只造成了很少量的伤害。
美国斯坦福大学的Hongjie Dai认为，这一研究十分令人感兴趣，但是碳纳米管为什么会变热并没有弄清楚，还需要更深入的研究。
Curley表示，这一研究目前尚处在初步阶段，还需要3到4年的时间才能进行临床试验。而他们的目的是创造出能够检出癌细胞的纳米颗粒，能够选择性地渗透进癌细胞中，而不需要人工将它们注射进去。（科学网 梅进/编译）
原始出处:
Cancer
Published Online: 24 Oct 2007
Carbon nanotube-enhanced thermal destruction of cancer cells in a noninvasive radiofrequency field
Christopher J. Gannon, MD 1, Paul Cherukuri, PhD 1 2, Boris I. Yakobson, PhD 3 4, Laurent Cognet, PhD 5 6, John S. Kanzius 7, Carter Kittrell, PhD 3 8, R. Bruce Weisman, PhD 3 5, Matteo Pasquali, PhD 3 5 8 9, Howard K. Schmidt, PhD 5 8, Richard E. Smalley, PhD 3 5 8§, Steven A. Curley, MD 1 4 *¶
1Department of Surgical Oncology, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas
2Department of Experimental Therapeutics, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas
3Department of Chemistry, Rice University, Houston, Texas
4Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, Rice University, Houston, Texas
5Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology, Rice University, Houston, Texas
6Center of Optical and Hertzian Molecular Physics, National Center for Scientific Research, Bordeaux University, Bordeaux, France
7ThermMed LLC, Erie, Pennsylvania
8Carbon Nanotechnology Laboratory, Rice University, Houston, Texas
9Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Rice University, Houston, Texas
email: Steven A. Curley (scurley@mdanderson.org)
*Correspondence to Steven A. Curley, Department of Surgical Oncology, Unit 444, University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, 1400 Holcombe Boulevard, Houston, TX 77030
The first two authors contributed equally to this article.
J.S.K. is the inventor of the radiofrequency field using nanoparticles.
§Deceased.
¶Fax: (713) 745-5235
Funded by:
American Association of Cancer Research Littlefield Grant
National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Alliance for NanoHealth
National Science Foundation
Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology
Fulbright Foundation
Keywords
carbon nanotubes ?radiofrequency ?thermal cytotoxicity ?cancer cells
Abstract
BACKGROUND.
Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) have remarkable physicochemical properties that may have several medical applications. The authors have discovered a novel property of SWNTs - heat release in a radiofrequency (RF) field - that they hypothesized may be used to produce thermal cytotoxicity in malignant cells.
METHODS.
Functionalized, water-soluble SWNTs were exposed to a noninvasive, 13.56-megahertz RF field, and heating characteristics were measured with infrared thermography. Three human cancer cell lines were incubated with various concentrations of SWNTs and then treated in the RF field. Cytotoxicity was measured by fluorescence-activated cell sorting. Hepatic VX2 tumors in rabbits were injected with SWNTs or with control solutions and were treated in the RF field. Tumors were harvested 48 hours later to assess viability.
RESULTS.
The RF field induced efficient heating of aqueous suspensions of SWNTs. This phenomenon was used to produce a noninvasive, selective, and SWNT concentration-dependent thermal destruction in vitro of human cancer cells that contained internalized SWNTs. Direct intratumoral injection of SWNTs in vivo followed by immediate RF field treatment was tolerated well by rabbits bearing hepatic VX2 tumors. At 48 hours, all SWNT-treated tumors demonstrated complete necrosis, whereas control tumors that were treated with RF without SWNTs remained completely viable. Tumors that were injected with SWNTs but were not treated with RF also were viable.
CONCLUSIONS.
The current results suggested that SWNTs targeted to cancer cells may allow noninvasive RF field treatments to produce lethal thermal injury to the malignant cells. Now, the authors are developing SWNTs coupled with cancer cell-targeting agents to enhance SWNT uptake by cancer cells while limiting uptake by normal cells. Cancer 2007. © 2007 American Cancer Society.
