One of the more common techniques evolving from the use of nanoparticles to study cell biology is the ability to ‘tag’ cells with colored (dyed) nanoparticles. In an important application of this technique, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology (USA) have been able to tag cancer cells that travel in the blood of mice and humans – the cells that cause metastasization – making it possible to remove them.

The technique uses dye to color (tag) the cancer cells fluorescent green (which makes them more visible to a microscope), then magnetic nanoparticles that are dyed red are introduced, which attach themselves to the cancer cells. Once attached, the cancer cells can be located and manipulated with magnetic equipment. This method makes it possible to filter travelling cancer cells from the bloodstream or peritoneal fluids, which would reduce the occurrence of cancer spreading (metastasizing) from the original location.

We are primarily interested in developing an effective method to reduce the spread of ovarian cancer cells to other organs ,” said John McDonald, professor at the the School of Biology at the Georgia Institute of Technology and chief research scientist at the Ovarian Cancer Institute.

“Often, the lethality of cancers is not attributed to the original tumor but to the establishment of distant tumors by cancer cells that exfoliate from the primary tumor,” said Scarberry [co-author of the study]. “Circulating tumor cells can implant at distant sites and give rise to secondary tumors. Our technique is designed to filter the peritoneal fluid or blood and remove these free floating cancer cells, which should increase longevity by preventing the continued metastatic spread of the cancer.”

[Source: Georgia Tech]

This study, furthering the work done in 2008 with mice blood, has demonstrated the same ability with human blood. The next step is to work with live animals (mice) to see if the technique significantly reduces the risk of metastasization.