Tumor cells generally have low oxygen levels, a condition known as hypoxia. This has provided medicine with an attractive target and a clear goal: Design a drug-delivery system that seeks out a low-oxygen environment and supplement it with cancer-killing medication.
Previously, this approach had only limited success due to inadequate or uneven hypoxia levels in solid tumors. But a Chinese research team claimed it addressed this problem by fashioning a self-charging battery that can be planted in the environment of the tumor cells. The researchers reported their findings in the latest issue of the journal Science Advances.
The novel battery is self-charging, and increases the state of hypoxia, which helps the medication to determine the location of the tumor.
“The battery is part of a two-stage approach to eradicating tumors. It increases and maintains the state of hypoxia while tumor-killing drugs designed to identify cancer cells in low-oxygen regions are deployed. By limiting drug application to the low-oxygen regions, there is little or no impact on healthy oxygen-rich cells,” explained Fan Zhang from the Fudan University in Shanghai.
In a small study, the battery/drug approach completely eliminated tumors in 80% of the mice. According to Zhang, the battery can continuously consume oxygen within a tumor cell for more than 14 days.
“This work is a crossover study between battery technology and biotherapy. It not only provides a new treatment method for anti-tumor therapy, but also creates a precedent for batteries in biomedical applications,” he added.
The author says despite early impressive results, more research is needed. “Although no serious side effects were noted in the mouse study, standards for humans are stricter. Compatibility with human tissue must still be confirmed. But we can say the technique holds great promise for application in other devices,” he concluded.
