Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute scientists have developed new imaging techniques to watch dangerous brain tumor cells respond to treatment in real time.The study was led by Zhi Sheng and Deborah Kelly, both assistant professors at the institute, and describes how the research team used nanotechnology to watch tumor stem cells respond to therapy.
Glioblastoma is a brain cancer with a poor prognosis. Glioblastoma tumors are hard to target. They’re aggressive and resistant to therapeutics. Even with surgical interventions or traditional treatments, some of the cells – the stem cells – tend to survive and grow new tumors.With their imaging techniques, we may be able to gain new insights into how the cells dynamically respond to treatments.We’ve never been able to directly observe the actions of potential cancer treatments this way before .It was astounding. In all my years of researching glioblastoma, it had seen only static images.
Scientists realized that glioblastoma stem cells could work very well with the imaging techniques .With a little trial and error, they’ve produced visually striking images.The research team separated the hard-to-kill stem cells from the general glioblastoma population by attracting the stem cells to a microchip coated with antibodies. The scientists then used a specially designed microfluidic chamber to trap the cells in a liquid environment.Once the samples were in place, the scientists blasted them with gold nanorods – similar to what is used in some cancer treatments – and watched the process in cell cultures using in situ transmission electron microscopy.Nanoparticle-based therapy represents a novel and promising approach to treat glioblastoma.Utilizing these tools we were able to visualize real-time movements of nanoparticles interacting with glioblastoma stem cells for the first time.
Researchers say the technology has many potential applications.
One may be able to directly observe an influenza virus, HIV, or other human pathogens infecting a cell, or even test new cancer treatments at the cellular level.They pointed to another characteristic that makes cancer cells difficult to treat: broad heterogeneity. In the same cancer population, even neighboring cells can differ drastically, and each cell can respond to treatments differently.
We can look at single-cell delivery of cancer treatments, and see how the individual cells respond. If we can learn how to kill these cells, we should be able to improve our chances of developing effective treatments by being able to directly observe the effects of the possible therapeutics.
The study published in NANO Letters.
