The Undetected
How does one detect a disease with few signs, a disease whose symptoms may not manifest for months, years—even a decade? If a collection of researchers from a number of universities (including Indiana, Purdue, and the Indiana Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center) is correct in their latest findings, the answer may be found in a fundamental building block of human life. Using nanotechnology, these researchers have designed a microRNA sensor to diagnose pancreatic cancer before it spreads to other organs, which limits the options available to treat it.
Among the companies we follow at BTA is Merrimack Pharmaceuticals (MACK), whose Onivyde drug (which recently obtained FDA approval) has focused on the treatment of pancreatic cancer to increase the life expectancy of those with the diagnosis of metastatic pancreatic cancer. But often, by the time drugs like Onivyde come into play, the cancer is so far along that the life expectancy, even with such drugs, is less than one year.
These researchers are hoping to change that.
Are MicroRNAs the “Tell”?
Because it can exist without demonstrating symptoms for a decade or longer, pancreatic cancer is notoriously difficult to diagnose. However, studies have shown that microRNAs may hold the key. MicroRNAs are stretches of RNA (like its cousin “DNA,” RNA is involved in the regulation and expression of our genes) that, as described by Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News, “regulate the expression or silencing of mRNA molecules.” The regulatory nature of these molecules has been shown to play a role in carcinogenesis, and they have been located in the bloodstream of pancreatic cancer patients, among other patients with certain tumors. By developing a detector of these molecules, and specifically those microRNA molecules that have been found in significantly higher levels in patients with pancreatic cancer, the researchers are hoping that they have found a method of detecting this cancer at an early, and more manageable stage. The returns could be tremendous, as 40% of those diagnosed at an early stage have been able to survive past 5 years, while if untreated until the metastatic stage, life expectancy drops below a year.
Seeing Something Small
This development is but another example of the growing use of nanotechnology in the medicinal fields. As a quick primer, nanotechnology very simply means tech science conducted at a level of size between 1 and 100 nanometers. How small is that? A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter; put another way, there are one million nanometers in a millimeter. The nanotechnology used in this particular case is, to put it simply, an attempt to see something extremely small, like strands of microRNA. But nanotech isn’t simply limited to sight; sometimes nanotechnology involves creating robotics or using already existing tiny shells (such as the empty shells of viruses) to combat disease on its own (tiny) level. Several companies that BTA follows, including NanoViricides (NNVC) and Soligenix (SNGX), have in their pipelines products pioneering the use of nanotechnology to treat a variety of diseases. What the researchers at Indiana University have demonstrated is that this technology may also prove to be instrumental in the detection of these diseases in the first place.
You can read the original article in Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News by clicking here.
Your excited analyst,
Alex Urpi
Partner/Research, BTA