There
is a lot we do not understand in terms of cellular response to
magnetic fields let alone with iron nano particles. This needs to be
systematically studied and made over into a body of work. I get the
impression instead that what effort has gone into has often been
oblique. Yet it has been very promising.
A
strong magnetic field applied across a fluid flow has been shown to
sterilize. Rather useful in spite of the reality that it has barely
been exploited. Lesser solutions retain precedence.
What
we learn here is that the correct magnetic setup can hugely affect
apoptosis. This has not been done any other way I am aware of so it
should be exciting to perfect as a protocol.
Would
it not be pleasant if we could simply spend time in a strong magnetic
field and have any cancer cells die and be sponged up? This work
suggests that this is plausible but also needing finesse.
Magnets kill cancer
cells in lab
Sunday October 07 2012
A magnetic method of
killing cancer cells has been developed by scientists in South Korea.
The technique uses a
magnetic field to flip a "self-destruct" switch in tumours.
Researchers have
demonstrated that the process works in bowel cancer cells and living
laboratory fish. Programmed cell death, or apoptosis, is one of the
body's ways of getting rid of old, faulty or infected cells.
In response to
certain signals, the doomed cell shrinks and breaks into
fragments. These are then engulfed and consumed by amoeba-like immune
cells.
Often in cancer,
apoptosis fails and cells are allowed to keep dividing
uncontrollably.
The magnetic therapy
involves creating tiny iron nanoparticles attached to antibodies
which bind to "receptor" molecules on tumour cells. When
the magnetic field is applied, the molecules cluster together,
automatically triggering the "death signal" that sets off
apoptosis.
In laboratory
experiments, bowel cancer cells were exposed to the nanoparticles and
placed between two magnets. The cells were designed to light up green
to signal that apoptopic clustering was taking place.
More than half the
exposed cells were destroyed by magnetic activation, whereas no
untreated cells were affected. In another experiment,
magnetically-induced apoptosis in zebra fish caused the creatures to
grow abnormal tails.
Details of the
research, led by Professor Jinwoo Cheon, from Yonsei University in
Seoul, appear in the journal Nature Materials.
The scientists wrote:
"We have demonstrated that apoptosis signalling can be turned on
in-vitro (in the laboratory) and in a zebra fish in-vivo (living)
model by using a magnetic switch. Our magnetic switch may be broadly
applicable to any type of surface membrane receptors that exhibit
cellular functions on clustering."
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