No to cancer with Nanoparticles

nanoparticles, particularly those of a rare earth metal called cerium. The particles are showing potential for a wide range of applications, from medicine to energy. researchers found that cerium oxide nanoparticles have two additional medical benefits: they behave like an antioxidant, protecting cells from oxidative stress, and they can be fine-tuned to potentially deliver medical treatments directly into cells.
Oxidative Stress = Major Headache
Oxidative stress has been implicated as a cause of arthritis, heart disease, and even aging. It also plays a role in several incurable blinding diseases, such as diabetic retinopathy, age-related macular degeneration, and retinal degeneration.

Oxidative stress occurs when too many reactive oxygen species (ROS) are present. These powerful molecules are generated by exposure to ionizing radiation and by commonplace reduction--oxidation reactions within cells. (Peroxide and free radicals are two examples of ROS.)

Usually, enzymes known as antioxidants protect cells from oxidative stress by disarming ROS and minimizing their toxic effects. But sometimes, the number of ROS overwhelms a biological system, causing damage to proteins, DNA, and other cellular materials.
In a nanocrystalline form, cerium oxide is a powerful antioxidant because its latticework crystal structure has many vacancies that can capture oxygen, and the material has a large surface area. Self showed that nanoceria mimic the activity of superoxide dismutases (SOD), an antioxidant that can stop the deadly chain reactions caused by ROS.
Stopping Eye DamageBecause they are bombarded by light and have a very high rate of oxygen metabolism, cells in the retina encounter relatively high numbers of ROS. Seal and his colleagues hypothesized that ROS may represent an "Achilles' heel" of blinding diseases, which can be specifically targeted using cerium oxide nanoparticles.

To test their hypothesis, the researchers used mice whose eyes have retinal defects similar to those found in patients with age-related macular degeneration. They treated some of the mice with nanoceria and then compared the number of lesions that occurred in their retinas. The researchers' results, published in Nature Nanotechnology, indicate that the nanoceria prevented about 85 percent of the damage to the retina.

Through a newly launched company, McGinnis is pursuing the development of nanoceria medical treatments for several causes of vision loss: the genetic eye disease retinitis pigmentosa (RP), age-related macular degeneration, and diabetic retinopathy.
Transferrin based delivery
As reported in ACS Nano, the researchers found that nanoceria with greater positive surface charge were able to bind better to the ligand protein transferrin. Transferrin is over-produced by cancer cells, which therefore have additional transferrin receptors. The researchers found that the transferrin-coated nanoceria would selectively enter cancer cells, demonstrating the potential of nanoceria in targeted treatments.
cerium oxide may protect healthy cells from the damaging effects of radiation given as cancer treatments, and it shows promise for treating arthritis, wound healing, spinal cord injuries, and neurodegenerative diseases. In collaboration with researchers at Imperial College London, Seal and his colleagues are also incorporating these nanostructures into bio-scaffolds for tissue engineering and stem cell differentiation.

Because of its catalytic nature, cerium oxide nanoparticles and their hybrids may be used efficiently in methanol-ethanol conversion, in the production of hydrogen from sugarcane, for pollution control, and as an electrolyte in fuel cells. Seal is excited about extending his nanoceria research into these energy-related areas.

pose questions we'll let u know the answers for your queries

Great little thermometers

I feel to share something about the little thermometers about which i came accross on my serach through net. They are none other thaan microbes which have their on role in detecion of temperature change.
Why are insects so ecologically important? "They carry diseases, they pollinate and they have economic impacts on crops and timber," says Hellmann, a biologist at the University of Notre Dame. In fact, almost 80 percent of the world's crop plants require pollination, and the annual value of insect-pollinated crops in the U.S. is about $20 billion. What's more, most of the multicellular living organisms on Earth are insects.

They are also particularly sensitive to climate change--as invertebrates, they can't regulate their own body temperatures--making them "great little thermometers,"
Most importantly, as climate change progresses, some insects may become trapped--like fish out of water--in habitats that can no longer support them. The insects may therefore go extinct or lose genetically important segments of their populations. But other species, and no one knows which ones yet, may be able to reach cooler climates by moving north on their own.

Will such mobile species be able to survive on the unfamiliar plants living in their new habitats? To help answer that question, Pelini conducted laboratory experiments that involve exposing caterpillars of two butterfly species to climates and plants that occur across their ranges, and then monitoring the growth and survival rates of these groups.

She will soon announce in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) how populations of these two butterfly species that live at the edges of their ranges will be affected by climate change and the various factors that may limit or reduce their northward expansion.

Hellmann is currently following up on Pelini's research by surveying thousands of genes in the two butterfly species in order to identify the genes that are turned off or on by climate change. These studies are designed to reveal the genetic bases for the tolerance of some insect species to climate change and the intolerance of others.
There is a difference between conducting managed relocation and introducing invasive species to new ecosystems. "If we thought that a species had the potential to become invasive, meaning it might become harmful where it was introduced, we would not want to consider that species as a candidate for managed relocation," says Hellmann. Species that are less likely to become invasive include those that are endangered or highly specialized or that we have some way of controlling.

we just have to make sure that our managed species shouldn't turn into invasive species. And that is the heart of the debate over managed relocation

pose questions as comments we'll let u know the answers for your queries