Chemical engineers based at the Universidad del Valle in Cali, Colombia are developing a treatment based on a patented family of eight different nanoparticles, which has already been shown to be highly effective in killing cancer cells in tissue culture and animal studies.
Profesor Rubén Jesús Camargo, director of the Physical Chemistry of Bio/Nanomaterials research group says they call these particles TiO2-m because the materials are based on titanium oxide molecules with extra chemical groups attached.“The patented TiO2-m has the special quality of preferentially entering the interior of cancer cells and not the interior of healthy cells,” Camargo said, adding this gives it an advantage over other treatments that don't have this specificity.
Once the TiO2-m is inside the cell, it can be activated with Ultraviolet (UV) light and other stronger forms of radiation to produce hydroxyl radicals, which attack the interior of the cancer cell, killing it.
In one study, after 40 minutes of treatment, 98.6% of cervical cancer cells were killed.
Origin Story
In the early 1990s, research groups in Japan led the field in the application of UV-activated titanium dioxide to catalyse these cancer-killing reactions, including a paper by Kubota et al.“In 2008, Due to the work done mainly in Japan, we saw in the titanium dioxide we were synthesizing as an opportunity to work in cancer and thus we began the first trials with the support of the Pharmacology group of the Faculty of Health,” he said.
They continued on with the research and in 2016, the group published an international patent called Synthesis Of Nanocompounds Comprising Anatase-phase Titanium Oxide And Compositions Containing Same For The Treatment Of Cancer.
The patent related not only to these nanocompounds comprising multilayer carbon nanotubes with anatase-phase titanium dioxide but also to the cancer-treatment method using UV light.
 |
| Photo: Rubén Jesús Camargo, director of the Physical Chemistry of Bio/Nanomaterials research group, in his laboratory. Credit: Andrew James (NCC-Univalle) |
Success in Cells and Model Organisms
After the patent, a TiO2-m and UV light treatment was tested in chronic myeloid leukemia cell lines in the lab. After 40 minutes of treatment, these too showed 80% of the cells had died.To further test the effectiveness of the treatment, the group conducted a study with dogs with breast cancer, applying an X-ray and TiO2-m treatment.
“The results for two months of treatment were a decrease in tumor size by up to 75%, facilitating oncological surgery to remove the tumor,” Camargo said, adding that the quality of life of the dogs improved and extended previously terminal cases out to two years.
Camargo says many groups around the world are working on similar objectives but they haven’t overcome the challenges in making an effective photodynamic therapy or the selectivity of the treatment towards cancer cells and not towards normal cells.
“We have achieved these points with the nanomaterial patented at the Universidad del Valle,” Camargo said, “I hope that the nanomaterial and the treatment will be commercialized soon and of course I would like our research group to be first there.”
Camargo added that the price of the treatment, when it is available, must be accessible to all of Colombian society.
 |
| Photo: Rubén Jesús Camargo, director of the Physical Chemistry of Bio/Nanomaterials research group research group. Credit: Andrew James (NCC-Univalle) |
Intellectual Property
Camargo says the ongoing research that came from the patent showed the importance of intellectual property.
“Colombia and developing countries in general must reduce their technological dependence on developed countries... Likewise, patenting makes our intellectual property visible and at some point it is recognized and finally generates solutions applied to our own problems,” he said. Camargo says that hard work and perseverance allowed the team to gain national and international credibility and develop applied health solutions even though they had an engineering background, not a health one.
“Another very strong challenge is to obtain the financing to continue with the studies and developments and, as in the previous challenges, the solution is achieved with work and persistence,” he said.
Camargo says human clinical trials and the translational research needed to bring the product to market requires additional investment.
“We have not done trials in humans but for this we need to do a translational stage that finally defines the application protocols in humans based on scientific evidence, additionally we’d need to process the necessary permits to enter human tests.”
At this point, no commercial agreements have been made for the eventual production of TiO2-m, but the research side continues.
“Colombia and developing countries in general must reduce their technological dependence on developed countries... Likewise, patenting makes our intellectual property visible and at some point it is recognized and finally generates solutions applied to our own problems,” he said. Camargo says that hard work and perseverance allowed the team to gain national and international credibility and develop applied health solutions even though they had an engineering background, not a health one.
“Another very strong challenge is to obtain the financing to continue with the studies and developments and, as in the previous challenges, the solution is achieved with work and persistence,” he said.
Camargo says human clinical trials and the translational research needed to bring the product to market requires additional investment.
“We have not done trials in humans but for this we need to do a translational stage that finally defines the application protocols in humans based on scientific evidence, additionally we’d need to process the necessary permits to enter human tests.”
At this point, no commercial agreements have been made for the eventual production of TiO2-m, but the research side continues.
Comentarios
Publicar un comentario