Scientists ‘cure cancer in mice’ by injecting lung and bowel tumours with tiny toxic copper particles and super-charging the animals’ immune systems
- Researchers used tiny amounts of a metal which is known to be toxic to cells
- They injected it into tumours and boosted the immune system for a double effect
- When tumour cells were injected into the body again the body fought them off
Scientists have managed to cure cancer – and stop it returning – in mice using tiny metallic particles made of copper.
In an experiment, a group of lab mice who had been given cancer were injected with specially created copper oxide particles.
Copper oxide is derived from copper and oxygen, and the researchers made it into nanoparticles – hundreds of times thinner than human hair.
They injected this into tumours at the same time as giving the mice immunotherapy, a powerful treatment already used by doctors.
The cancers disappeared and, when cancerous cells were injected into the animals’ bodies again, the immune system destroyed them straight away.
Human trials are the next step for the scientists, who hope the treatment could replace gruelling chemotherapy for as many as 60 per cent of cancers.
Although metal particles are known to be toxic to living cells the scientists said they were able to harness tiny amounts of them to target specifically cancerous tumours and avoid healthy tissue (stock illustration of cancer cells)
‘If we would ingest metal oxides in large quantities, they can be dangerous,’ said Professor Stefaan Soenen and Dr Bella Manshian, from KU Leuven university in Belgium, who worked together on the study.
‘But at a nanoscale and at controlled, safe, concentrations, they can actually be beneficial.’
Professor Soenen added: ‘As far as I’m aware, this is the first time that metal oxides are used to efficiently fight cancer cells with long-lasting immune effects in live models.
‘As a next step, we want to create other metal nanoparticles, and identify which particles affect which types of cancer.’
The mice in the study were given lung and bowel cancers, and the scientists suggested copper oxide could work for breast and ovarian forms of the disease, among others.
Metals are known to be poisonous to living cells and cause physical damage to them as well as disrupting DNA and stopping them reproducing normally.
This is one of the reasons why air pollution is so harmful, and also why exposure to lead, for example, can cause serious illnesses.
By harnessing tiny amounts of this danger and targeting it directly at cancer tumours, researchers were able to destroy specific growths.
And they combined the treatment with immunotherapy, which is a medical way of unleashing the body’s own immune system and white blood cells’ ability to destroy a tumour.
The body is capable of breaking down cancers by itself but may be held back to stop itself overreacting and damaging healthy tissue.
Immunotherapy is becoming increasingly common because it means patients can be treated without chemotherapy, which often has crippling side effects.
People taking chemo may lose their hair, become extremely weak and frail, lose weight, vomit, and may be so sickened they cannot tolerate it at all, allowing the cancer to grow.
Professor Soenen added: ‘Nanomedicine is on the rise in the US and Asia, but Europe is lagging behind.
‘It’s a challenge to advance in this field, because doctors and engineers often speak a different language.
‘We need more interdisciplinary collaboration, so that we can understand each other better and build upon each other’s knowledge.’
The KU Leuven researchers worked with others from the University of Bremen, the Leibniz Institute of Materials Engineering and the University of Ioannina, in Greece.
Their paper was published in the prestigious German chemistry journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition.