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*Glioblastoma affects roughly 250,000 people globally annually
A team of United States and Chinese researchers has unveiled a new plant-based nanoparticles treatment for glioblastoma which offers hopes to brain tumor patients across the globe.
Globally, about 250,000 people are reportedly affected by glioblastoma; a malignant tumor affecting the brain or spine, which grows and spreads rapidly, often creating pressure.
According to Interesting Engineering, glioblastoma is an aggressive form of brain cancer that launches itself every year affecting about 250,000 people globally.
The current survival chance of a person with glioblastoma is as low as 14-16 months and this is even after one of radical treatments.
The innovative research with phytochemical origin would boost the treatment of virile disease and help overcome the impediment of brain tumor.
The treatment came from researchers at Wuhan's Renmin Hospital and Yale University.
The researcher explained that nanoparticles are formed from a plant compound called bardoxolone methyl (BM).
Explaining further, "These nanoparticles show the characteristic feature of crossing the blood-brain barrier and directly targeting glioblastoma cells.
"This breakthrough was tried on mice but the nanoparticles did what was expected which was to locate and destroy cancerous tissues."
The researchers pointed out in their study that they had prospected and tested a new nanotech-based therapy for the treatment of a specific type of brain cancer.
The modern methods of glioblastoma treatment commonly include surgery with the removal of the tumor and its subsequent treatment by radiation and chemotherapy.
However, the cancer tends to become resistant to these treatments and thus becomes ineffective in its treatment process.
Unfortunately, glioblastomas are not easy to treat for several reasons and one of them is the blood-brain barrier which is essentially a wall around the brain where healthy blood cells and nutrients cannot cross, therefore they cannot reach the tumor either.
Technologies to combat glioblastoma
There are other new technologies that are being developed to facilitate the delivery of drugs to the glioblastoma patients.
One such advancement is the process by which medical practitioners implant small ultrasound beams that open the blood-brain barrier for a short time permitting medication to pass through its walls.
However, it can be seen that the creation of plant-based nanoparticles might be a much less intrusive and highly efficient approach to this problem.
Plant-based Nanoparticles: A natural breakthrough solution for brain tumor
According to the research paper, "These molecules self-assemble into spindle-shaped nanoparticles which are very small in size, about 50-80 nm in width and about 170 nm in length.
"The nanoparticles are from medicinal plants, and due to their specially designed structure, they have the ability to assemble on their own, which makes them suitable for the treatment of different diseases such as glioblastoma.
"These nanoparticles proved valuable in enhancing the blood-brain barrier permeability so that they could get to the tumor to give the targeted treatment.
In the study, the BM nanoparticles were coated with an anticancer peptide known as P28, and the resulting composite was called P28-LBM nanoparticles which exhibited still higher penetration into the tumor tissue and effectiveness.
How nanoparticles aid fight against Glioblastoma
"The nanoparticles act auto-catalytically, the meaning being, that once they arrive at the tumor site, the LEX (Lexiscan) which is a compound within the nanoparticles helps in making the tumor membrane more permeable.
"This enables penetration of more nanoparticles into the tumor with a view to killing the cancerous cells.
"Further, the nanoparticles inhibit a phenomenon called 'epithelial-mesenchymal transition', a process that is accountable for the shooting and spreading of cancer cells."
This new treatment may well be the groundbreaking therapy for patients with glioblastoma.
"The creation of plant-based nanoparticles creates a possible cure and treatment for glioblastoma patients. Being able to traverse the blood-brain barrier and target specifically the cancer cells, this would be a life-saving solution with both targetable solutions potentially improving the survival rates of those struggling with this type of cancer.
"This approach represents a promising new avenue for improving outcomes in patients with glioblastoma," the researchers said.
