University of Washington Research: Nanoparticles cross blood-brain barrier to enable ‘brain tumor painting’

Brain cancer is among the deadliest of cancers. It’s also one of the hardest to treat. Imaging results are often imprecise because brain cancers are extremely invasive. Surgeons must saw through the skull and safely remove as much of the tumor as they can. Then doctors use radiation or chemotherapy to destroy cancerous cells in the surrounding tissue.

Researchers at the University of Washington http://www.washington.edu/ have been able to illuminate brain tumors by injecting fluorescent nanoparticles into the bloodstream that safely cross the blood-brain barrier — an almost impenetrable barrier that protects the brain from infection. The nanoparticles remained in mouse tumors for up to five days and did not show any evidence of damaging the blood-brain barrier, according to results published this week in the journal Cancer Research.

Results showed the nanoparticles improved the contrast in both MRI and optical imaging, which is used during surgery.

Hannah Hickey [email protected]

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