DAILY LOBO new mexico
THURSDAY September 25, 2014 | Volume 119 | Issue 29
The Independent Student Voice of UNM since 1895
Cancer treatment may make use of magnets Tumors in lung cancer patients could be targeted by inhaled compound By Lauren Topper
The magnet is perhaps best known for its role in sticking things to the fridge, but scientists at UNM believe they may have a better use: treating cancer. At the Health Sciences Center, the laboratory of Dr. Pavan Muttil is making strides in developing a new method to target tumor growth within the lungs by using the simple power of magnets. Muttil and his students have developed a magnetic vest that, when worn by a cancer patient, may help direct cancer drugs to their intended target without damaging the rest of the body, he said.
The problem with current treatment options, Muttil said, is the difficulty in sending tumorfighting drugs directly to the tumor instead of circulating them throughout the entire body. “For treating lung cancer, the standard care of therapy is injectable drugs,” Muttil said. “The drug travels all over the place, and a very small percentage of that drug actually reaches the lung. Cancer-treating drugs are very toxic, so the whole thought here was, ‘can we deliver the drugs directly to the lungs?’” The toxic side effects of chemotherapeutic drugs are notoriously hard on patients, including nausea, vomiting and hair loss, he said. The hope is that by reducing the amount of the drug ending up in non-cancerous parts of the body, the side effects of these drugs might be reduced — and it may increase their effectiveness at treating the actual tumor as well. Muttil found that other researchers have tried to get the
Disease database to be funded by NIH By Sayyed Shah A UNM professor of medicine has received a $4.9 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop tools to link information about drugs, diseases and genes. Dr. Tudor Oprea, chief of the Division of Translational Informatics in the Department of Internal Medicine at UNM’s School of Medicine, said the award is a part of the NIH Common Fund initiative called Illuminating the Druggable Genome. “Our aim is to try and make sense of all this information and put it together in an organized fashion in order to establish new relationships between medicines, drugs and drug targets,” he said. He said that NIH is interested in identifying ways to shed light on the unknown parts of the human genome in order to develop new treatments for diseases like cancer. In the pilot phase of the project, researchers will establish background information on these unexplored genes and create a publicly shared database so scientists can find out what they can accomplish with limited time and resources, Oprea said. “Ideally you want the drug to be safe and not to touch many other destinations and to be effective,” he said. “We want drugs to be safe and effective and want to discover tools that would allow us to accelerate drug discovery toward that goal.” According to a press release from the NIH, there are an estimated 3,000 genes in the DNA of humans that could be targeted by drugs in order to manipulate their expression. Only 10 percent of these “druggable genes” are currently the targets of approved drugs.
Oprea said the investigation will be carried out by a group of professors from around the world. He will be joined by Cancer Center researchers Larry Sklar and Anton Simeonov. Researchers from a division of NIH called the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, the European Bioinformatics Institute in England, and the Center for Research in Denmark are also partners in the project, he said Dr. James Anderson, a director for the NIH common fund, said the project could speed up the process of drug development. “By focusing on understudied genes, we hope to find potential targets for medications to treat or cure some of our most burdensome diseases, and then share what we learn so that all can build on this knowledge,” he said. The NIH Common Fund has run this particular grant through the National Cancer Institute, but Oprea said they are interested in finding treatments for all sorts of diseases. Oprea said he hopes that within two years they will have a user interface portal, hosted by the NIH, that will provide scientists and the public at large with open-ended information on drugs and their targets. “This is a team work. Many people are collaborating in this project and this is an international effort,” he said. “Diseases, just like scientists, have no borders.” Sayyed Shah is the assistant news editor at the Daily Lobo. He can be contacted at assistant-news@dailylobo.com or Twitter @mianfawadshah.
“...Cancer-treating drugs are very toxic, so the whole thought here was, ‘can we deliver the drugs directly to the lungs?” Dr. Pavan Muttil UNM Health Sciences Center drugs straight into the lungs by administering them through inhalation, a method similar to inhalers used by asthma patients. However, despite the direct path of the drugs into the lungs, the tumors themselves still weren’t specifically targeted. “If, let’s say, on my left lung I have a tumor; OK, I want to
treat that. But my right side is a healthy lung — nothing is wrong with that side of the lung. When I’m taking a drug into my lungs as an inhalant, what happens is the drug goes uniformly everywhere (in the lungs),” Muttil said. “It’s sort of treating the tumor, but at the same time it’s causing some side effects to the other lung.” To address this problem, Muttil and his team developed a dry powder containing both the cancer-treating drug and iron oxide, a magnetic compound of iron and oxygen, that can be inhaled by cancer patients. It is his hope that cancer patients will be able to self-administer the drug at home using an inhaler, he said. “The way you would use (an inhaler) for asthma, you’re going to use it the same way for cancer patients. You don’t need a healthcare provider to inject this,” Muttil said. “So, in this case a patient can do it, if they’re not
in the advanced stage of cancer. They can do this at home.” During this process, the patient would wear a brace containing a high-powered magnet positioned on the chest, directly above the tumor, Muttil explained. The iron oxide is attracted to the magnet, bringing the tumor-fighting drug with it. Much of the work in developing this potential treatment was performed by Amber McBride, a Ph.D. candidate. So far, McBride said her results show a 23 percent difference in the amount of dry powder localizing in the targeted lung versus the non-cancerous lung. She said she is enthusiastic about her research and hopes her work can positively influence the lives of cancer patients. “It’s great to work on a translational project — research that translates from lab bench to bedside. And it’s wonderful to work on a project this
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Magnets page 2
Homecoming incoming Staff Report
Due to the ongoing construction on Avenida Cesar Chavez, UNM fans attending Friday night’s football game against Fresno State are advised to take alternate routes to University Stadium. UNM’s T Lot, located on University and Lomas Boulevards, will be used for shuttle transportation, according to a release from the Ath-
letics Department. A round trip from T Lot to University Stadium will cost $3. UNM is advising fans to use Lead/Coal Avenues or Gibson Boulevard, which exits off Interstate-25. For after the game, Avenida Cesar Chavez will be closed between University Boulevard and I-25. Cars parked in Stadium West, Pit West, Baseball South, Baseball East lots will be forced south on
University Boulevard to Gibson Boulevard, according to UNM. Cars parked in Science & Technology, Isotopes and CNM lots will be forced North on University Boulevard to Lead/Coal Avenues. Contact the Daily Lobo sports desk at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @DailyLoboSports.
Lobo football traffic egress plan for Friday 9/26 game vs. Fresno State University Boulevard N
CNM Main Campus
UNM South Campus W Avenida Cesar Chavez
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Isotopes Park E
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University Arena “The Pit”
Lobo Baseball/ Softball Fields
University Stadium
Football game allowed parking
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Part Avenida Cesar Chavez closed After-game traffic flow