By Yun Suh-young
A group of local researchers have found a novel way to kill cancer cells without affecting other parts of the body.
Researchers from Yonsei University said Monday they have developed a “nano magnetic switch” that can control activities of cells by using a magnetic field that is harmless to the body.
The team was led by professors Cheon Jin-woo of the department of chemistry and Shin Jeon-soo of the department of microbiology.
“We have developed magnetic nanoparticles that turn on apoptosis cells by using a magnetic field in a remote and non-invasive manner,” the researchers wrote in the Oct. 7 article published online in the international science journal Nature Materials.
Magnetic nanoparticles refer to ultrafine particles, with sizes ranging between 1 and 100 nanometers.
They have special magnetic characteristics that can be used for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or heat therapy.
According to the research team, there is a signaling system inside the cells that is created by protein units that resemble circuits in electronic equipment.
The system has a switch that can control the flow of the system and depending on the on and off status of the switch, different kinds of biological activities occur.
What the researchers developed is designed to combine the apoptosis cell that induces a cell to destroy itself with the surface of the cancerous cell. This means if the nano magnetic switch is used on the apoptosis receptors in the cancer cell and turned on, it makes the cancer cells self-destruct.
The team said they applied the nano magnetic switch to zebra fish that have genetic similarities to that of humans and confirmed that the cancer cells died.
“We have also demonstrated that the magnetic switch is operable on the micrometer scale which can be applied in an in-vivo system where apoptotic morphological changes of zebra fish are successfully induced,” the team wrote in the report.
Cancer treatment side effects are expected to be reduced by using the therapeutic nanoparticles, according to researchers.