cancer – Inorganic Nanoparticles Group

Víctor Puntes interviewed by the Gaceta Médica and Diario Médico

Editor — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 14:52:22 +0000

Prof. Víctor Puntes was recently interviewed by the Gaceta Médica (the Medical Gazette) and the Diario Médico (the Medical Journal), within the framework of the ImagineNano 2013 conference, where he was a speaker. The articles were on the use of nanoparticles in cancer therapy (as nanocarriers for drug delivery), precisely the topic of his talk at the conference.

The Gaceta Médica article (in Spanish) was published on April 25, 2013: “Las AuNPs reducen la toxicidad de los quimioterápicos sobre células sanas”.

http://www.gacetamedica.com/noticias-medicina/articulo.aspx?idart=747053&idcat=793&tipo=2

The Diario Médico article (in Spanish) was published on April 29, 2013: “La nanotecnología usa metal precioso con fin biomédico”

http://biotecnologia.diariomedico.com/2013/04/29/area-cientifica/especialidades/biotecnologia/investigacion/nanotecnologia-usa-metal-preciosofin-biomedico

Using nanoparticles for drug delivery in cancer treatment: our major results published in PLoS ONE

Editor — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 20:11:37 +0000

One of the main works of Joan Comenge’s doctorate in our group has focused on the study of drug delivery using nanoparticles as carriers, specifically for cancer treatment. The work started up on the patent previously developed by Víctor Puntes and collaborators, to refine and test gold nanoparticles where the chosen anti-cancer drug (cisplatin) is linked to them by a pH-sensitive link resulting from a careful multi-step bioconjugation protocol.

Developed through a long interdisciplinary collaboration with research groups from the Santiago de Compostela University, the University of Valencia and the Sant Pau Hospital, the results on the analysis of this drug delivery system, including in vitro and in vivo (mice) bio-distribution studies, has recently been published in PLoS ONE: “Detoxifying Antitumoral Drugs via Nanoconjugation: The Case of Gold Nanoparticles and Cisplatin”.

The paper presents the success of the specially designed nanocarriers in decreasing the treatment toxicity, essentially by driving the drug more efficiently to its target, the tumor, and thus avoiding undesired side effects. But it is also geared to present and advance the field of nanocarriers for delivering platinum-based drugs more broadly. For example, an editorial published almost simultaneously, “Nanoparticles: the future for platinum drugs or a research red herring?” (by N. Wheate, Nanomedicine), did a great job in summarizing the hopes and challenges that lie in this type of cancer treatment approach. And notably, our work on delivering cisplatin with gold nanoparticles addresses all the points raised, framing the strategy and its results on a more general, and more useful, pharmacological perspective.

J. Comenge, C. Sotelo, F. Romero, O. Gallego, A. Barnadas, T. García-Caballero Parada, F. Domingues and V. Puntes (2012). Detoxifying Antitumoral Drugs via Nanoconjugation: The Case of Gold Nanoparticles and Cisplatin, PLoS ONE 7(10): e47562

http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0047562?imageURI=info:doi/10.1371

(open access article)

Our research on nanoparticles for drug delivery featured in newspaper Ara

Editor — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 22:55:26 +0000

The work on drug delivery carried out by our group and collaborators, led by Víctor Puntes, has been featured in an article by the Catalan newspaper Ara. The article explains our project of using gold nanoparticles to improve the delivery of anti-cancer drugs (biodistribution and release). The article by Mònica Ferrado, “Gold to fight cancer”, was published on September 30, 2012.

Link to article (in Catalan, access by subscription)

Víctor Puntes featured in newspaper La Vanguardia for nanobiomedicine entrepreneurship

Editor — Sat, 05 May 2012 20:19:41 +0000

Prof. Víctor Puntes has been featured in an article in La Vanguardia, a local newspaper, in relation to our research on bioconjugated nanoparticles for drug delivery. For several years, Víctor and several members of our group, together with collaborators, have been carrying on a project on bioconjugation of gold nanoparticles for delivery of cisplatin, an anti-cancer drug. This work has led to a patent that has been now licensed to the Swiss company Nanonica, to create the start-up Nanotargeting as joint venture between Nanonica, ICN, and Ferrer Group.

This story, being an excellent example of technology transfer and entrepreneurship in the biotechnological field, was fully covered by the local newspaper La Vanguardia in the article “Gold in nanotechnology”, by Rosa Salvador, published on May 2, 2012.

Read the full article here (in Spanish)

Our research featured in national television!

Editor — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 12:49:35 +0000

Our group was featured in “Informe Semanal”, a classic prestigious weekly news special report, aired via national television RTVE. Our group was selected together with few other top research groups in Spain that are leading scientific projects of great relevance and impact in society and the world. Our group participated in particular due to our work in nanomedicine, specially the use of nanoparticles for drug delivery in cancer treatment.

The show was aired on April 28, 2012. Here you can find the show in full length:

Víctor Puntes talks at Ferrer on detoxifying antitumoral drugs via nanoconjugation

Editor — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 14:18:07 +0000

Víctor will be giving an invited talk at Ferrer, March 5 at 12h, on “Detoxifying antitumoral drugs via nanoconjugation: the case of gold NP and cisplatin”.

The talk will take place at the Salón de Actos del CIDF (Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo Farmacéutico, Ferrer International), located in Joan de Sada, 32,08028 Barcelona.

Joan Comenge has been awarded a BE-DGR Scholarship for research stays abroad

Editor — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 14:30:58 +0000

Joan has won a BE-DGR Scholarship for short predoctoral research stays from AGAUR (Generalitat de Catalunya), to spend 4 months at the Center for Cancer Research & Cell Biology at Queen’s University (Belfast, Ireland). He will be working on his proposed project “The use of gold nanoparticles in cancer treatment:

their double role as nanocarriers for drug delivery and sensitizers for radiation therapy”. Congratulations!!!