Nanoparticles could help treat resistant form of cancer

Researchers from the University of Notre Dame have developed nanoparticles that could treat a devastating, incurable cancer. Multiple myeloma (MM) is a cancer of plasma cells in bone marrow that in particularly difficult to treat due to resistance to doxorubicin, the leading chemotherapeutic treatment, once the cancer cells adhere to the bone marrow tissue. According to Başar Bilgiçer, an investigator in Notre Dame’s Advanced Diagnostics and Therapeutics initiative, the nanoparticles are designed to reduce the development of this resistance and target the cancer cells so that they actively consume the drug and it does not harm healthy organs. When a nanoparticle attaches itself to an MM cell, the cell takes up the particle quickly, and it is not until then that the drug is released, breaking apart the cancer and killing the cell.