Nanotubes may treat, diagnose brain tumors

PASADENA, Calif., Jan. 17 (UPI) -- U.S. Space Age nanotechnology might soon be used to diagnose and treat brain tumors.

Scientists at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., and the City of Hope cancer research and treatment center in Duarte, Calif., joined in a project designed to boost the brain's immune response against tumors by delivering cancer-fighting agents via nanotubes.

If nanotube technology can be effectively applied to brain tumors, it might also be used to treat stroke, trauma, neurodegenerative disorders and other disease processes in the brain, said Dr. Behnam Badie, City of Hope's director of neurosurgery and of its brain tumor program.

"I'm very optimistic of how this nanotechnology will work out," he said. "We are hoping to begin testing in humans in about five years and we have ideas about where to go next."

The Nano and Micro Systems Group at JPL creates the tiny, cylindrical multi-walled carbon tubes for City of Hope scientists. The nanotubes, in experiments with mice, were non-toxic in brain cells, didn't change cell reproduction, researchers said.

The JPL and City of Hope teams published results of their previous work in the journal NeuroImage.