nanocarriers – 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

Víctor Puntes invited to participate in ImagineNano 2013 – NanoBioMed and Societal Activities

Editor — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 13:47:06 +0000

Prof. Víctor Puntes was invited to participate as speaker in ImagineNano 2013, the second edition of the largest Spanish Event in Nanoscience & Nanotechnology, held from April 23 to 26, 2013, at the Bilbao Exhibition Centre (BEC), in Bilbao, Spain.

At this major event, seven conferences took place in parallel, as well as a vast exhibition, one-to-one meetings and an industrial forum. ImagineNano gathered the global nanotechnology community, including researchers, industry policymakers and investors.

In this framework, Prof. Puntes was invited on a double feature. First, to give the talk “Detoxifying Antitumoral Drugs via Nanoconjugation: The Case of Gold Nanoparticles and Cisplatin” at the NanoBioMed conference. And secondly, to give a dissemination talk for the general public within the Societal Activities of ImagineNano: “Nanoparticles before nanotehcnology (cosmogenic, geogenic, biogenic and -unnoticed- antropogenic origin)”. Both talks took place on April 24.

NanoBioMed program and info: http://www.imaginenano.com/SCIENCE/Scienceconferences_BioNanoMed.php

Societal Activities program and info: http://www.imaginenano.com/SOCIETY/Society_Imaginenano.php

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)