Nanorobots against bladder cancer: 90% reality: “But a lot of funding is needed” – Mediodía COPE

What “Science shows this is barbaric” what Breton and De la Vega put into the mouth of Don Hilarion in Verbena de la Paloma, there is not a day that is not fulfilled at least a little more.

And so we’ll have to talk about nanorobots used in the fight against cancer. What we’re saying is that these microscopic devices could revolutionize cancer treatment by delivering drugs directly to the areas where cancer occurs, avoiding treatment-induced deterioration in the rest of the body.

For those of us who already have a lot of gray hair, the thought of tiny robots running across our bodies brings to mind the TV series Once Upon a Time…, which explains how the human body works.

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Nanorobots created by a group of researchers from Institute Bioengineering of Catalonia and from Cooperative Biomaterials Research Center from the Basque Country, They will be something like this: nanoparticles that, after entering the body, go directly to the bladder tumor and release a drug to treat it.

In tests on mice, they were able to reduce the size of cancer by 90%.. Without a doubt, this is a new step in the fight against this disease, which It has one of the highest incidence rates in the world. Is the fourth most common type of cancer among men. Although yes, it has a good prognosis and a very low mortality rate.

Comparing it with a car, Samuel Sanchez teacher ICREA study of the Institute of Bioengineering of Catalonia – and the leader of this research – explains that these nanorobots are very small spherical particles (which could be the chassis of a car) on the walls of which there are enzymes (molecules that speed up chemical reactions). called urease, which will be the propulsion engine. Inside the particle there will be a car load, that is, a drug that comes out through some pores present in the particle. The fuel this engine needs is urea (enzymes react to contact with this substance), a substance found in urine so it can move into the bladder.

“We will have millions of nanorobots that will move like birds or fish, in huge flocks inside the bladder, until they reach the target – the tumor,” explains Professor Sánchez Pilar García Muñiz in Noon COPE.

What new would an alternative to nanorobots mean?

“Current treatments are very aggressive and do not eliminate the tumor, and the patient has to go to hospital on average 13 or 14 times. This system will allow drug delivery to be more targeted and effective, avoid side effects, reduce cost because there will be fewer hospitalizations, fewer interventions, and it will speed up the eradication of the tumor, which with one dose eliminates 90%, which is a very high level for the first use,” – explains the researcher.

This 90% efficacy was achieved in tests on mice, that’s the first step, and now “the second step will be changes, now we’ve done very targeted, very direct radiotherapy, and now we’ll need to test drugs that are widely available.” accepted in the clinic, and in human trials, test them with nanorobots, and then see what happens in the mice if the tumor grows back, that 10% will grow back or not, and that the relapse can be eliminated,” Professor Samuel details Sanchez.

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Tens of billions for science to develop and become a reality

So that nanorobots become a real reality”Yesand it takes almost more money than time and that regulators will begin to accept what we do, and that we know how to do it, and believe that within three to four years we will achieve it, but we need a lot of money, a lot of funding,” the scientist says.

Below is a key question for this new cancer solution to become a reality in the not-too-distant future: “How many tens of millions are needed? We’re talking big money, but it’s worth pushing the science forward and attracting “to do the first patient trial and see these more personalized and more targeted technologies to improve patients’ lives,” he concludes.