Nanotechnology to replace poisonous chemotherapy in cancer cases

By Syed Akbar
Hyderabad: Cancer patients need no longer undergo highly poisonous chemotherapy once the phase-II clinical trials using nanotechnology prove successful.
According to Andhra-born US biotechnologist Dr Krishna R Dronamraju, doctors have successfully carried out phase-I trials using Nanoshells to treat cancer patients.

"The technology will be available for cancer patients in the next three years," he said.

Dr Krishna, who is currently in Hyderabad, is the adviser to the US Government on biotechnology and is an authority on frontier biological sciences including synthetic biology and nanotechnology. He has announced opening of a centre in Hyderabad for AP-US cooperation in new technology for mutual research and sharing of information on treatment of diseases like cancer, AIDS, malaria, muscular dystrophy and diabetes.

In Nanotechnology to treat cancer, nanoshells are injected into cancer tumors. Laboratory tests have shown that cancer tumor is destroyed by nanoshells when heated to high temperatures using lasers. While chemotherapy involves spread of toxic chemicals to all over the body, nanotechnology pinpoints the tumor and destroys the cancerous cells. The healthy cells are left untouched.

"Nanotechnology combined with synthetic biology are going to play a major role in treating common ailments in the next few years. Synthetic biology is more advanced than traditional gene therapy. A new species can be created using synthetic biology and experiments so far have been successful. We can create new genes and cells, in fact organisms, through synthetic biology," Dr Krishna observes.