Boron-nitride nanotubes show potential in cancer treatment - Pelton Turbine Runner

It is offered in manycancer treatment centers across the United States, and is beingstudied for effectiveness on a wide variety of specific cancers.Researchers at the Institute of Life Sciences began experimentingwith BNNTs to see if the nanotubes could make the treatment moreeffective. "Irreversible Electroporation is a way of putting holes in the wallof a tumor cell," said Michael W. Smith, chief scientist at BNNT,LLC and formerly a staff scientist at NASA's Langley ResearchCenter. Smith explained that when a hole of proper size is made in the wallof a cell, the cell reacts in a predictable fashion.

Although theexact mechanism has not been pinpointed, researchers suspect thatsuch a hole could trigger cell suicide. "The cell will literallygo, Oh, something's terribly wrong, and kill itself. That's calledapoptosis," he added. Smith read about the Italian researcher's trials with BNNTs in ajournal, and he offered the researchers a sample of the veryhigh-quality Jefferson Lab/NASA Langley/NIA BNNTs. These BNNTs arehighly crystalline and have a small diameter.

Structurally, theyalso contain few walls with minimal defects, and are very long andhighly flexible. The Italian researchers first suspended the BNNTs inglycol-chitosan, a type of bio-soap solution, and blasted the tubeswith sound waves to chop them into smaller bits. The solution,containing varying amounts of BNNTs, was then dumped on clusters ofhuman epithelial carcinoma cells (also known as HeLa cells) in thelab to see if the BNNTs alone would kill the cells. The researchersdetermined the amount of BNNTs that killed roughly 25 percent ofthe cancer cells over 24 hours.

The researchers then exposed the HeLa cells to that amount of BNNTsin solution and zapped the cells with 160 Volts of electricity,which was the electroporation device supplier's suggested voltageand corresponds to an electric field of 800 Volts per centimeter.The researchers also treated unexposed cancer cells with the samevoltage. They found that the Irreversible Electroporation treatment methodkilled twice as many cancer cells with BNNTs (88 percent) on thecell surface than without (40 percent). "They were able to get, in a petri dish, more than double theeffectiveness. So, this technique works twice as well with ournanotubes on the cells than without them. That's a big deal,because you can either use a lot less voltage or kill a lot morecells," said Smith.

Smith and his colleague, Kevin Jordan, a Jefferson Lab staffengineer and chief engineer at BNNT, LLC, said that BNNTs have along list of potential uses. "Technology researchers say these nanotubes have energyapplications, medical applications and aerospace applications,"said Jordan. The researchers are now attempting to scale up the productionprocess, while also improving the purity of the BNNTs. Their aim isto be able to produce mass quantities of tubes for exploration ofthe full gamut of potential applications. For instance, the Italian researchers will need more high-qualityBNNTs to continue their studies in mice.

Moving to this next stepis promising, but the research is still in the very early stages,and it still has a long way to progress before the technique willbe considered for use in the clinic to treat cancer. Researchers at NASA's Langley Research Center, the Department ofEnergy's Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility and theNational Institute of Aerospace created a new technique tosynthesize high-quality boron-nitride nanotubes (BNNTs). Thepressurized vapor/condenser (PVC) method was developed withJefferson Lab's Free-Electron Laser and was later perfected using acommercial welding laser. In this technique, the laser beam strikesa target inside a chamber filled with nitrogen gas.

The beamvaporizes the target, forming a plume of boron gas. A condenser, acooled metal wire, is inserted into the boron plume. The condensercools the boron vapor as it passes by, causing liquid borondroplets to form. These droplets combine with the nitrogen toself-assemble into BNNTs.

The research was published online ahead of print in the journalTechnology in Cancer Research and Treatment ( "BNNT-Mediated Irreversible Electroporation: Its Potential onCancer Cells" ).

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