biology

Nanocell

Nanocell is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Nanocell rather than just read about it. In short: A nanocell is a drug delivery platform consisting of a polymer-bound chemotherapeutic drug combined with a lipid-bound anti-angiogenesis drug. Nanocells are currently being developed in the lab of Shiladitya Sengupta of MIT.

Key takeaways

Nanocell belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Nanocell to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Nanocell from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

A nanocell is a drug delivery platform consisting of a polymer-bound chemotherapeutic drug combined with a lipid-bound anti-angiogenesis drug. Nanocells are currently being developed in the lab of Shiladitya Sengupta of MIT.

Theory Angiogenesis, or the formation of new blood vessels, plays a major role in the development of a tumor. After a tumor has grown to about the size of a cubic millimeter, its core becomes hypoxic, and it begins to release growth factors to recruit new blood vessels that will supply it with oxygen. Inhibiting angiogenesis has been investigated as a means of preventing tumor growth but has not proven to be fully successful, for tumor cells cut off from the blood supply can eventually develop “reactive resistance” to hypoxia. These resistant cancer cells could be killed by chemotherapeutic drugs, but once the vasculature to the tumor has been cut off, there is no way for chemotherapy to be delivered. Nanotechnology offers a way to deliver chemotherapeutic drugs and anti-angiogenic drugs in the same vehicle so that as the blood supply is shut off, chemotherapy is present to prevent any hypoxia-resistant cells from proliferating.

Technology Labs at MIT are in the process of developing nanocells capable of delivering both types of drugs. Each nanocell is between 120 and 200 _m in diameter and can be thought of as “a balloon within a balloon.” Inside each nanocell is a chemotherapeutic drug covalently bound to a polymer, and on the surface of each cell is a lipid coat containing an anti-angiogenic drug. The technology makes use of the fact that a tumor's blood vessels have pores 600 _m in diameter and are much leakier than normal blood vessels, which have pores only around 50 _m in diameter. The nanocells circulate in the blood, and because of their size, they leak out of blood vessels only in tumors. Once there, the nanocells are degraded by enzymes produced by the tumor. Work remains to be done to win clinical approval for the technology, but results from Sengupta's lab indicate that the nanocells are more effective and less toxic than traditional chemotherapy.

References

Nanocell targets cancer Archived 2008-05-14 at the Wayback Machine Nanocell's double hit on cancer Archived 2006-12-13 at the Wayback Machine MIT engineers an anti-cancer smart bomb Sengupta S, Eavarone D, Capila I, Zhao G, Watson N, Kiziltepe T, Sasisekharan R. Temporal targeting of tumour cells and neovasculature with a nanoscale delivery system. Nature. 2005 Jul 28;436(7050):568-72.

External links Center for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Nanocell

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Nanocell claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Nanocell before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Nanocell ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Nanocell

In research: Nanocell appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Nanocell in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Nanocell is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Dosage forms, Drug delivery devices, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Nanocell outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Nanocell in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Nanocell means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Nanocell out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Nanocell in simple terms?

Why does Nanocell matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Nanocell?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Nanocell.