An international team of researchers led by Morteza Mahmoudi at Michigan State University has developed a new method to better understand how nanomedicines are – emerging diagnostics and treatments that are minimal but very complex – interacting with patient biomolecules.
Medications based on nanoscopic particles have promised to be more effective than conventional therapies while reducing side effects. But subtle complexity has limited most of these grains to laboratory study and out of clinical practice, said Mahmoudi, assistant professor in the Department of Radiation and the Precision Health Program .
“Taxpayers’ money has been heavily invested in cancer nanomedicine research, but that research has not been successful to the clinic, ”Mahmoudi said. “The biological adverse effects of nanoparticles, how the body interacts with nanoparticles, are not understood. And they need to be considered in detail.”
Mahmoudi’s team has now introduced a unique combination of microscopy techniques to more closely consider these biological effects, the researchers explained in the journal Nature Communication, published online on January 25th.
The team’s methods allow researchers to see important differences between particles exposed to human plasma, the bloodless part in which biomolecules contain proteins, enzymes and antibodies.
These biological fragments give birth to a nanoparticle, forming a coating called corona (not to be confused with the novel coronavirus), the Latin word for crown. This corona contains an advertisement for how nanoparticles interact with patient biology. Now, Mahmoudi and his colleagues have shown how to get a unique view of that corona.
“For the first time, we can visualize the 3-D structure of the granules coated with nano-sized biomolecules,” Mahmoudi said. “This is a useful approach to obtain helpful and robust data for nanomedicines, to obtain the kind of data that will influence scientists’ decisions about the safety and efficacy of nanoparticles.”
While work like this is ultimately helping to move therapeutic nanomedicines into the clinic, Mahmoudi is not optimistic that widespread agreement will happen anytime soon. There is still a lot to learn about the grains. Moreover, one of the things that researchers understand well – that small changes in these reducing drugs can have an external effect – was confirmed by this study.
The researchers found that the coronas of nanoparticles from the same batch, exposed to the same human plasma, could induce different reactions by a patient to a single dose.
However, Mahmoudi sees an opportunity here. He believes that these granules could shine as diagnostic tools instead of drugs. Instead of trying to treat diseases with nanoscale medicine, he thinks persnickety grains would be ideal for early detection of disease. For example, the Mahmoudi group has previously demonstrated this diagnostic capability for cancers and neurodegenerative diseases.
“We could be more proactive if we used nanoparticles as a detector,” he said. “When you find a disease at the earliest stages, it will be easier to treat.”
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Materials provided by Michigan State University. Original written by Matt Davenport. Note: Content can be edited for style and length.