Releasing Electrons from Nanoparticles to Fight Cancer

The most exciting moment for me was when a tumor mass irradiated with X-ray disappeared after only three days. In the past, I had experimented with adding various anti-cancer drugs to tumor masses, but they never disappeared. The method described in this paper, which combines iodine-containing nanoparticles and monochromatic X-rays, seems to have a very high ability to kill cancer because it efficiently causes breaks in the DNA of cancer cells. We believe that this treatment method may be able to eliminate cancer that could not be eliminated by conventional methods.

The biggest challenge in this research was to destroy tumor spheroids, which are masses of cancer cells. Tumor spheroids, which are experimental models of cancers made to mimic real tumors, are resistant to treatment and difficult to destroy. However, we were able to overcome this difficulty by using our original iodine-containing nanoparticles and tissue-penetrating monochromatic X-ray. These nanoparticles can penetrate the cells in the entire tumor spheroid. In addition, the monochromatic X-rays we used are adjusted to an energy that is not absorbed by elements other than iodine, so that the X-rays thoroughly hit the center of the tumor spheroid. We believe that by combining these factors, the tumor DNA was able to be damaged extremely efficiently leading to the efficient destruction of the tumor spheroid.

Through this study, I learned that novel research can be done when researchers from various fields work together. Until this point, I had been doing research in the field of biology, but in this research new discoveries were made possible by collaborating not just with biologists, but also physicists and chemists, and successfully integrating each other’s knowledge and skills. I think that considering perspectives from other fields of research and whether they can be applied to one’s own research will lead to new discoveries.

I am continuing to work towards developing new radiotherapy methods as a program-specific researcher in iCeMS Tamanoi Lab. At iCeMS researchers from diverse research backgrounds are gathered. It is an environment with no resistance to conducting cross-disciplinary research. For this paper as well, we were able to conduct new research by collaborating with researchers from various fields, including biology, physics, and chemistry. I think it has broadened my knowledge and experience, which was previously limited to molecular biology.

*All the information on this page, including the researcher’s affiliation, is current at the time of the interview.