Eli Vlaisavljevich, assistant professor of biomedical and mechanical engineering at Virginia Tech, won a Trailblazer Prize from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering at the National Institutes of Health to study imaginable remedies for metastatic breast cancer.
The purpose of the task is to expand a new non-invasive device that combines nanoparticles with ultrasound to selectively attack and destroy cancer cells in breast tissue. Vlaisavljevich leads the research, in collaboration with Jenny Munson, associate professor of Biomedical and Mechanical Engineering at the College. Institute of Biomedical Research in Engineering and Fralin, and Irving Coy Allen, associate professor of biomedical sciences and pathology at the Virginia-Maryland School of Veterinary Medicine.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 650,000 more people receive chemotherapy in the United States each year. Chemotherapy is a pharmacological remedy that uses chemicals to kill the body’s cells. Resistant chemicals used cause serious side effects.
The new technique proposed in this study, nanoparticle-mediated histotripsia (NMH), is noninvasive, seriously affecting patients with methods of choice, such as chemotherapy or surgery. Histotripsy is a strategy that uses ultrasound directed rays to kill or destroy cancer cells. This strategy is the main objective of vlaisavljevich’s laboratory, the ultrasonic healing laboratory and non-invasive therapies.
The main goal of my lab is to expand histotripsy, a non-invasive method of tumor removal, which has recently been used in human patients to treat cancer and showed promising effects for the non-invasive remedy of counterfeit tumors. broaden the perspective of histotripsia by using nanoparticle-mediated histotripsia to target and treat rapidly spreading tumors that may not be treated only with local ablation. “
Histotripsia is a term coined by engineers to describe the generation that uses the cavitation method: “histo” means “woven” and “tripy” means “failure”. High-pressure ultrasound pulses in histotripsy create clouds of bubbles in the tumor, which expand and collapse to disintegrate target cells and tissues. Creating those bubble clouds is called cavitation.
In Vlaisavljevich’s previous studies on histotripsy in the context of the cancer remedy, the effects indicated that histotripsy provides high-precision, real-time imaging advice, resulting in fewer errors: cancer cells are identified, directed and destroyed. the non-invasive remedy of tumors.
However, traditional histotripsy still requires the imaging ability of tumors prior to treatment. In metastatic breast cancer, tumors are not known and can be visualized before treatment, especially in patients with complex diseases.
To take this into account, the researchers propose to design acoustically active nanoconons (cone-shaped structures) that decrease the tension needed to apply histotripsy, injecting those nanocones into the frame and working them to selectively adhere to breast cancer cells, this technique. It will allow histotripsy to be selectively generated only in spaces containing cancer cells. The nanocones will target cancer cells, destroying only cancerous tissue.
“We have collaborated effectively on other projects,” Coy said. ” However, it is a new approach and we are positive about the results. We’re excited to do that. “
After designing the nanoconons, researchers will evaluate the in vitro feasibility of these structures to selectively target and eliminate breast cancer cells in a 3-d breast cancer style designed by tissue engineering developed at Munson’s lab, The Onco-Engineering Lab, before moving on to small animal studies in partnership with Allen’s lab , The Allen Laboratory.
“We use 3-d tissue engineering to verify that it reflects an in vivo microenvironment, or the patient’s microenvironment,” Munson said. “What is vital in these models, and why we want 3-d, is to see how fluid moves through cells and tissues. With those patterns, we can mimic this liquid and see what is most likely to happen in the body. “
This multidisciplinary project will also involve undergraduate and undergraduate academics, who will gain practical knowledge by conducting in vitro and in vivo tests on breast cancer models, which will demonstrate fluid flow, selective bonding and the elimination of cancer cells.
The task is expected to answer the key questions needed to demonstrate the feasibility of using nanoparticle-mediated histotripsia for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer, offering a key first step towards the progression of this approach to be used in clinics and ending up as a cancer remedy. Researchers also expect this approach to paints for patients who do not request surgical removal of cancerous tumors.
“If successful, I hope these paintings will lay the groundwork for further cancer treatment for patients with the disease at an early and backward stage,” Vlaisavljevich said. “This approach could possibly be particularly the point of care for cancer patients by expanding our targeting specificity and treating tumors that are too small to be detected through imaging. Our long-term purpose is to expand this generation as a platform to treat other competitive cancers like pancreatic and metastatic brain cancer. “
Virginia Tech
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