A scientist has managed to reduce the size of objects to micrometer sizes, but as a result of an assassination attempt, he is now in a coma. In order to save his life, a group of researchers will have to use this novel technology to be able to enter his body with a submarine of no more than one micrometer, reach his brain and achieve his cure.
We all know this famous work of science fiction entitled “An amazing trip”. At the time it presented a very novel technology, which was impossible to bring to reality. Today, although we do not have this technology, we can introduce small “submarines”, manned by drugs, directed to where we want so that, once there, they can carry out their curative action. This idea, typical of science fiction, is the basis of nanomedicine.
Nanomedicine is medicine based on the use of nanocarriers. These nanocarriers, like the submarine in the movie, are vehicles 1,000 times smaller than a micrometer that can transport the drugs needed to treat a certain disease.
Nanomedicine to fight cancer
At the University of Seville we have had the opportunity to work with these small transporters aimed at fighting lung cancer. In a series of very preliminary experiments, we have studied how to target these transporters to lung cancer-causing cells, so-called cancer stem cells, described by Lapidot’s team in 1994 in the journal Nature . If we manage to direct the treatment to these cells in particular, and no more, we will be able to avoid the side effects derived from the treatments .
To direct these small transporters we use molecules present in this “target” cell type that are either not found in other cells, or are found in very low concentration. By specifically attacking these cells, we will be able to deprive the tumor of its source of tumor cells, so that it will eventually disappear. We have been able to characterize some of these targets, we have even been able to see how nanocarriers accumulated more in tumor cells than in non-tumor cells. Various studies published in journals such as PLoS One or Nature corroborate our results, but there is still a long way to go.
Today, teams of researchers from all over the world are working on these “little submarines” and little by little, very promising results are being achieved. Thanks to the efforts of all of them, science fiction is becoming more science and less fiction.
Ana Sarrias is taking the Master’s Degree in Medical, Clinical and Experimental Research at the University of Seville. Article written in collaboration with the UCC + i of the University of Seville.
