Chemical engineering chair and Karmanos Cancer Institute receive $17,000 donation to research nanotechnology and melanoma
Tiny gold nanoparticles could become a skin cancer cell's most potent foe thanks to Wayne State research leader Guangzhao Mao's work.
Professor Mao is chair of the Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Department of the College of Engineering. She and her collaborator at the Karmanos Cancer Institute, Professor Malathy Shekhar, received a $17,000 donation on Dec. 21 to examine how nanotechnology can be used to fight melanoma.
The National Nanotechnology Initiative defines nanotechnology and nanoscience as the study and application of extremely small things ranging from 1 to 100 nanometers. The gold nanoparticles being used by Mao range from 3 to 40 nanometers in size. By comparison, a sheet of paper is about 100,000 nanometers thick.
The Karmanos grant money was raised by 3Balls Racing LLC, a high-performance car racing company based in Holly, Michigan, whose owner, Ken Grulich, is a melanoma survivor. The company holds an annual charity event at Michigan racetracks in August to aid in cancer research.
"Melanoma is a particularly nasty, aggressive type of cancer," says Mao. Fortunately, though, the cancer's aggressiveness also provides a weakness that can be targeted. Cancer cells grow quickly and are quite porous compared to other cells, meaning that tiny particles can readily enter them. Melanoma cells also have a protein, identified as Rad6, that works against chemotherapy by repairing DNA damaged by the treatment drugs. Damaging that protein could stop the cells in their tracks."
"My collaborator at Karmanos discovered there's this protein inhibitor that would damage the protein and stop the repair," Mao continues. "We plan to conduct nanotechnology research to deliver this drug specifically to melanoma cells.."
The nanotechnology based on gold nanoparticles has been researched for breast cancer applications as well as drug delivery to spinal cord injury patients. In that delivery system, tiny amounts of a medication similar to caffeine coat gold nanoparticles that act like a sled to carry the material through the body. Meanwhile, a protein attached to the nanoparticle acts as the sled's driver and is pulled directly to the injury site. There the drug, called theophylline, stimulates muscles that control breathing in order to prevent fatal secondary infection from setting in.
"It has a similar effect to coffee - it excites you. But it is so toxic at the therapeutic level that patients cannot tolerate the high dosage. So we invented a nanovehicle using the gold nanoparticle as a delivery vehicle," Mao explains.
Now that same kind of delivery mechanism can be identified for precisely targeted chemotherapy. Direct delivery of the drug can be far more effective and longer lasting than the drug used alone, and the gold nanoparticles themselves are nontoxic. Application of the eventual melanoma drug could be as simple as using a specially engineered skin cream that lets the particles penetrate.
"In the nanomedicine area, the goal is very simple: We want to reduce the side effects of drugs. You can reduce the toxicity of chemotherapy if you can reduce the drugs and direct them specifically to the cancerous area," she says. "We want to make beautiful nanomaterials, but it would be even better if these nanomaterials can be used to fight diseases."
The donation will be used as seed money to do research and gather preliminary data, which then can be used to seek a much larger federal grant to develop the process and take it through the extensive testing needed before the therapy can be used to treat cancer patients.
Mao began Wayne State's nanotechnology program in Engineering and has been excited to see the cross-disciplinary growth of nanotechnology over the last 10 years, particularly in medical applications.
Events such as the Karmanos one provide a chance to explain nanotechnology to the public and get them to share in the excitement over innovative applications, Mao says. "I think as scientists, we're at fault. We spend so much time doing lab work and writing proposals. When we take time to show our technology, people are really excited."