Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck
Graphene, the ultra-strong and highly-conductive material typically thought of as a potential component for electronic devices or advanced composites, could also be used to combat several different forms of cancer, experts from the University of Manchester have discovered.
Writing in the journal Oncotarget, Professor Michael Lisanti, Dr. Aravind Vijayaraghavan and their colleagues have found that a modified form of the carbon allotrope can target and neutralize cancer stem cells without harming other cells, meaning it could treat or prevent the disease.
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That modified form, graphene oxide, acts as an anti-cancer agency that selectively targets cancer stem cells (CSCs), and when combined with existing types of therapy, it could eventually lead to tumor shrinkage while also preventing the spread of cancer and recurrence of the disease.
The researchers caution that additional pre-clinical studies and extensive clinical trials will be required before the research could be used on patients in the clinic. However, their work could open up a new treatment possibility for those suffering from various forms of cancer.
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“Cancer stem cells possess the ability to give rise to many different tumor cell types,” explained Professor Lisanti, who is the director of the Manchester Centre for Cellular Metabolism in the University’s Institute of Cancer Sciences. “They are responsible for the spread of cancer within the body – known as metastasis – which is responsible for 90 percent of cancer deaths.”
Biomedical applications
CSCs also play a key role in the recurrence of tumors after treatment, the professor added. This is because conventional types of chemotherapy and radiotherapy only kill the “bulk” cancer cells and generally have no affect on the cancer stem cells.
“Graphene oxide is stable in water and has shown potential in biomedical applications. It can readily enter or attach to the surface of cells, making it a candidate for targeted drug delivery,” said Dr. Vijayaraghavan. “In this work, surprisingly, it’s the graphene oxide itself that has been shown to be an effective anti-cancer drug.”
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“Cancer stem cells differentiate to form a small mass of cells known as a tumor-sphere,” he added. “We saw that the graphene oxide flakes prevented CSCs from forming these, and instead forced them to differentiate into non-cancer stem-cells. Naturally, any new discovery such as this needs to undergo extensive study and trials before emerging as a therapeutic.”
Developing a real-life treatment option for cancer
However, the researchers remain hopeful that their results, which were recorded in cell cultures created in the laboratory, will translate into a effective, real-life treatment option for cancer. They explained that they prepared several different types of graphene oxide and tested them against six different common types of cancer – breast, pancreatic, lung, brain, ovarian and prostate.
They found that the flakes inhibited tumor formation in all six types of the disease, indicating that graphene oxide could be effective against a large number of different cancers (if not all of them). It works by blocking processes which occur on the surface of the cells, the authors noted, and could lead to improve clinical outcomes when combined with conventional treatments.
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“These findings show that graphene oxide could possibly be applied as a lavage or rinse during surgery to clear CSCs or as a drug targeted at CSCs,” said study co-author Dr. Federica Sotgia. “Our results also show that graphene oxide is not toxic to healthy cells, which suggests that this treatment is likely to have fewer side-effects if used as an anti-cancer therapy.”
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