The Institute for Radiopharmacy at the Forschungszentrum Dresden-Rossendorf is using Nanosight's LM-20 to study magnetic nanoparticles for applications in cancer therapy.
The research team of Dr Holger Stephan is using the nanoparticle-characterisation system to develop magnetic nanoparticles that can be applied in cancer therapy - preferably in combination with intracellular hyperthermia/ablation and endoradionuclide therapies.
The Nanosight system's ability to track individual particles by the scattering of a laser beam is said to have made the study of nanoparticle stability much more convenient.
Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis (NTA) has been used to successfully follow the stability of different systems as a function of temperature in EDTA and different cell media.
There are three specific goals for measurement: first is to get information about the size distribution of nanoparticles and their stability under physiological relevant conditions; next is to study the influence of nanoparticle surface modification on the size distribution; and finally is the establishment of structure-activity relationships for the nanoparticles on the cellular uptake behaviour (first step) and cancer-tissue accumulation (second step), 'The Nanosight provides reliable results on nanoparticles as small as 50nm, sample handling and measurement is straightforward and experiments are performed more quickly than using PCS,' said Dr Stephan.
'The ability to work directly with relevant solutions removes another block to quickly understanding the behaviour of these magnetic nanoparticles and their ultimate use in treating cancers,' he added.
