Larson RichardHere’s an alarming piece of news concerning cancer. Well, a research from Senior Scientific, LLC, and the University of New Mexico claimed that they have formed a feasible technology to enhance the discovery of leukemia cells in bone marrow. Superconducting Quantum Interference Device (SQUID) apparently improved the capability to quickly measure the quantity of nanoparticle bound tumor cells in a model by at least 10 fold, and supposedly augmented sensitivity of minimal residual disease measurements.

Preceding researches have apparently signified that the magnetic needle could gather about 80 percent of leukemia cells in a bone marrow sample in supposedly just few minutes, as per Edward R. Flynn, Ph.D., president and CEO of Senior Scientific, LLC.

Lead scientist Richard S. Larson, M.D., Ph.D., vice president for translation research at the University of New Mexico Health Science Center, commented, “This promises to significantly enhance the detection for residual disease in leukemia and other cancers. Coupling nanotechnology can be employed in common techniques to enhance its utility.”

The researchers created this magnetic marrow biopsy needle in an attempt to aim tumor cells with nanoparticles and then preferentially pull out the tumor cells by means of a magnetic needle. They used anti-CD34 antibody loaded magnetic nanoparticles to apparently identify CD34+ cells as a sign of leukemia. To enumerate the cells recovered, they supposedly attached this nanoparticle-mediated fishing for leukemic cells with SQUID. SQUID apparently improved the sensitivity of gauging minimal residual disease over standard pathology technique for patients going through chemotherapy.

Flynn mentioned, “This result will determine more precisely the effect of the chemotherapy and will help to ascertain proper dosage or termination of treatment for patients.”

Moreover, Larson mentioned that SQUID could operate well with existing technologies to enhance the finding of leukemia cells in the bone marrow. Chi Van Dang, M.D., Ph.D., professor of medicine, cell biology, oncology and pathology, and vice dean for research at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, believes that this method could be somewhat dissimilar from the present standard.

Dang, who was not associated with this study, but is an editorial board member for Cancer Research, remarked, “In the case of leukemias without clear genetic markers, the magnetic needle could be useful. It is possible that this technology could be used to detect cancer stem cells in general, if the proper antibodies with appropriate specificity are available.”

Senior Scientific, LLC, is at present taking part in follow-up researches to boost the effectiveness of the magnetic needle more through advanced magnet configurations and theoretical calculations.

This research is published in Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.