Gene therapy can offer an effective treatment for drug-resistant radio-insensitive cancer. However, progress has been hampered by the difficulties in developing an appropriate delivery mechanism. Now researchers have demonstrated for the first time that magnetic nanoparticles provide safe, effective and targeted “suicide-gene” delivery to cells of a particularly prevalent and highly resilient type of liver cancer. Because the nanoparticles are magnetic they can also be used for hyperthermia treatments, where magnetic energy is converted into heat to elevate the temperature of the surrounding cancerous tissue, increasing the overall therapeutic effect of the gene therapy….
http://nanotechweb.org/cws/article/tech/58224