Chinese scientists have developed a drug-free theranostic agent that can be a good replacement for traditional chemotherapeutics in cancer treatment.
The agent was jointly developed by researchers with Hefei Institutes of Physical Science and Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
The agent can also be a promising candidate for the visualization therapy of tumors by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), according to researchers.
Due to high prices and severe side effects, traditional chemotherapeutic drugs are limited in clinical application. Drug-free therapeutic agents with low cost and less side effect are in high demand for cancer treatment.
Researchers said they have integrated chemical dynamic therapy with limotherapy and tumor-specific MRI to develop a nano-platform, which can be helpful in cancer treatment and also monitor its progress with the help of MRI.
The finding has been published in Biomaterials, an international journal on the science and clinical application of biomaterials. (Xinhua)
A traditional Chinese medicine preparation used to treat cancer and boost patients' immunity has been given the go-ahead for a third phase of clinical trials in the US, the last major hurdle for those wishing to launch new drugs in the US market. The drug, known as Kanglaite Injection, contains anticancer compounds extracted from the seed of coix, a grasslike relative of maize, and has been approved and used as a cancer treatment in China since 1995.
Prof. LIANG Gaolin's group at the Department of Chemistry of the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), by collaborating with Prof. ZHONG Kai's group at the High Magnetic Field Laboratory of CAS, made big progress in developing a new imaging platform for evaluating chemotherapeutic response of tumor. They reported one novel magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agent which can "smartly" aggregate in apoptotic tumors, resulting in enhanced T2-weight MR signal. This work was published online in Nano Letters.
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