A study was published earlier this year by researchers in South Korea who were examining the possibility of using gold nanorods to fight brain tumors. This relates to viruses because the vehicle for getting the gold nanorods to the tumor site was an envelope of rabies virus (RABV) glycoproteins. The RABV glycoproteins were chosen for their ability to get inside of neurons and the researchers hoped that these RABV coated nanorods would travel up these neurons to a brain tumor where they would be localized and then heat up to cook the tumor when exposed to near infrared light. In the study, the researchers conducted a number of separate experiments examining the localization of gold nanorods, how they heated up when exposed to near infrared light, and the demonstrated potential for tumor reduction via this methodology. A major success of the study was the creation of nanorods that perfectly fit in RABV envelopes. Their study results supported the idea that the RABV envelope helped localize the nanorods and that the nanorods would heat to a sufficient degree to decrease the size of the tumor.
While an incredible idea, there were a number of faults with the study. First, when they examined the tumor destroying capability, the tumor was placed on the rat’s side, not in its brain. Second, the researcher’s never justified why the golden nanorods would localize preferentially in tumor cells. This paper also made me ask a couple of questions: how do the nanorods move from cell to cell in the brain? Wouldn’t this process (if true) take a long incubation time much like rabies? Would heated nanorods that didn’t make it to the tumor injure healthy cells?
Though this paper asks more questions than it seems to answer, the possibility for using rabies virus as a viral vector is an intriguing one and, surely, more research will surface to this extent.
- Devon Z.
Reference:
1 comment:
Happiness is all i see now I never thought that I will be cured from HERPES virus again. I have been suffering from a deadly disease (HERPES) for the past 3 years now, I had spent a lot of money going from one places to another, from churches to churches, hospitals have been my home every day residence. Constant checks up have been my hobby not until this faithful day, I was searching through the internet, I saw a testimony on how DR agaba helped someone in curing his HERPES disease, quickly I copied his email which is Dragabasolutionhome@gmail.com just to give him a test I spoke to him, he asked me to do some certain things which I did, he told me that he is going to provide the herbal cure to me, which he did, then he asked me to go for medical checkup after some days after using the herbal cure, behold I was free from the deadly disease, he only asked me to post the testimony through the whole world, faithfully am doing it now, please brothers and sisters, he is great, I owe him in return. if you are having a similar problem just email him on : Dragabasolutionhome@gmail.com or WhatApp: +2349074536486
Post a Comment