In what is being considered a path-breaking innovation, a scientist hailing from Hyderabad and his colleagues have invented a system in which a nano-particle carries the payload of anti-cancer drug and releases it only in the cancerous cell, thus protecting healthy cells around.
The cutting-edge research done in the United States has been patented recently.
The nanotechnology scientist, Rao Papineni, told this correspondent on the phone from the U.S. that the patent application received approval (patent no. US 8,202,544 B2) on June 19.
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Dr. Papineni, chief scientist and senior principal investigator in medical applications of nanotechnology at Carestream Health, Inc USA, along with his fellow researchers, filed for the patent in 2009.
“This patent will potentially change the way radiation is administered. It will improve localisation and monitoring of tumour and will help in highly targeted delivery of drugs to kill cancer cells,” he said.
Together with Alan Pollack, chairman of the Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Miami, Dr. Papineni has been exploring the ability of nano-particles as a targeted drug carrier. “In rough terms, nano-particles are like payload delivery vehicles that can enhance… damage to cancer tissues and simultaneously reduce the toxicity of normal and healthy tissues during radiation treatment.”
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“The title of the patent is ‘High Capacity Non-Viral Vectors.’ The non-viral vectors are nano-particles. The nano-particles will allow the drug particle to target the diseased site with pinpoint precision. The nano-particles will allow the drug to be released inside the diseased cell. They will enhance the function of the drug… Our nano-particles will carry the… drug precisely with minimal collateral damage to healthy tissue,” Dr. Papineni said.