China-US team creates nano-plant drug for deadliest brain cancer

A new nanoparticle treatment is showing promise for glioblastoma, one of the most aggressive forms of brain cancer

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A team of Chinese and US scientists has discovered a way to use nanoparticles to cross the blood-brain barrier for targeted cancer treatment. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 10:00am, 9 Sep 2024Updated: 4:23pm, 25 Sep 2024

A new plant-based nanoparticle treatment for glioblastoma, the fastest growing and most aggressive form of brain cancer, has been developed by scientists in China and the US.

Researchers from Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University and Yale University found that bardoxolone methyl (BM) – a phytochemical capable of self-assembly into spindle-shaped nanoparticles – was able to effectively target tumour cells when injected into mice.

“These nanoparticles are designed to overcome the dual challenges of effectively killing [glioblastoma] cells and efficiently penetrating the brain,” the team said in a paper published in the August issue of the peer-reviewed journal, Small Science.

These spindle-shaped nanoparticles have a diameter of just 50 to 80 nanometres and a length of around 170 nanometres. A nanometre is one-millionth of a millimetre – an average sheet of paper has of thickness of around 100,000 nanometres.

Nanomedicine is an area that is showing a lot of potential in the fight against cancer. And the BM nanoparticles are displaying a lot of promise as a safe treatment for glioblastoma in particular.

Glioblastoma is one of the most common forms of cancer that originates in the brain or spinal cord. It is also one of the most aggressive: those diagnosed with it are immediately classified as stage four, the most advanced cancer stage.