Join the club for FREE to access the whole archive and other member benefits.

New urine test detects cancer cells and their location using nanoparticles

15-Jul-2021

Key points from article :

A new diagnostic nanoparticle can reveal the presence of cancerous proteins, pinpointing the tumor location.

“This is a really broad sensor intended to respond to both primary tumors and their metastases,” - Sangeeta Bhatia, senior study author.

Can perform both molecular screening (detecting the urinary signal) and imaging.

Researchers added a radioactive tracer, copper-64, to enable the particles for PET imaging.

Tested the diagnostic particles in two mouse models of metastatic colon cancer to the lung and the liver.

Using acid-sensitive nanoparticles to accumulate Copper-64 provides a much clearer image of lung tumors.

If approved in humans, this diagnostic could be useful for evaluating the treatment response, and for long-term monitoring of tumor recurrence or metastasis, especially for colon cancer.

Glympse Bio performed phase 1 trials of an earlier version of the urinary diagnostic particles and found them to be safe in patients.

Research by MIT published in Nature Materials.

Screening cancers non-invasively; shows safety in phase 1 trials

Mentioned in this article:

Click on resource name for more details.

Glympse Bio

Biotech manufacturing advanced nanoparticle sensors to monitor diseases

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Private land-grant research university

Nature Materials

Journal providing information from all areas of materials science and engineering.

Sangeeta Bhatia

Biomedical researcher and John J. and Dorothy Wilson Professor at MIT