“Buckyballs” could help halt the spread of cancer cells. They could help treat Alzheimer’s.
They could also potentially cause human cells to lapse into a comatose state.
All that from a “nanoparticle” far too small to see.
“Buckyballs” got their name from their resemblance to American architect Buckminster Fuller’s caged dome shapes. They are one of the first nanomaterials to be produced in mass quantities. At the forefront of emerging nanotechnology, they are currently being used in consumer products like cosmetic creams and tennis raquets and being studied for use in even more.
The tiny soccer ball-shaped particles have a more formal name: “fullerenes.” They are used to improve targeted drug delivery, antibacterial agents and even paint.
New research from scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico has found that a slight modification to the nanoparticle can cause human cells to lapse into a comatose state—a toxic condition, but one that might also provide opportunities to treat degenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s or halt the spread of cancer cells.
“Nanomaterials are used in more than 800 products today,” says toxicologist Rashi Iyer, the senior scientist who led the research. “They are just something we have to live with, but we have to live with them responsibly by understanding their potential impact [on us and the environment].”
Iyer and her colleagues at Los Alamos tested the effect of three different forms of buckyballs – one pristine and two structurally modified versions – on human skin and lung cells. (These were not the configurations of buckyballs currently used in consumer products.)
Two of the forms, the pristine and one modified version known as “hexa,” had no noticeable effect on the cells. “Tris” fullerenes on the other hand caused the cells to fall into a kind of suspended animation where they couldn’t grow, divide or die. Without these activities, cells are considered toxic since they hamper normal organ development and immune responses.
On the flip side, this comatose state, technically referred to as senescence, may also serve as a way to halt the progression of degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s, says Iyer. And if fullerenes could stop cancerous cells from dividing, that might increase the time doctors have to administer treatments like chemotherapy. The team published their findings in the April 15th issue of Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology.
“We showed that functionalization makes a huge difference; that when you change it, you can completely change how a [nanoparticle] interacts with a biosystem,” says Iyer. Studies like these may provide guidance for future nanotechnology design and development as well as protect those coming in direct contact with the materials.
Outside experts contacted by the Independent agreed that studies like Iyer and her colleagues’ are a step in the right direction for an industry that functions almost entirely unregulated. They were far less excited about the team’s findings.
“The scientists pitched this research as showing the potential health impacts of [fullerenes], but it was not actually helpful in answering this question,” says Andrew Maynard, director of the Risk Science Center at the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health. “It is an interesting and useful paper in understanding a new piece of chemistry, but not in illuminating how nanoparticles interact within the body.”
Jennifer Sass, a senior scientist at the Natural Resource Defense Council, called the team’s suggestions about fullerenes’ possible use in new disease treatments “too much of a jump ... It seems that under these conditions the molecules may be used to stop regulated cell growth. But cancer is unregulated. It’s different. And the fullerenes may act completely differently in a different biological medium.”
