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Engineers Develop LED Device to Kill Cancer Cells

Catwell

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The LED device could help fight deep-seated cancers. (Image Credit: University of Notre Dame)

Cancers near or on the skin can be effectively treated through specific light types. However, deep-seated cancers surrounded by blood, tissue, and bone are too far away for that light treatment therapy. Engineers at the University of Notre Dame developed a tiny, wireless, implantable LED device for deep-seated cancer treatments. It has a light-sensitive dye responsible for killing cancer cells and mobilizing the immune system’s cancer-targeting response.

“Certain colors of light penetrate tissue deeper than other ones,” said Thomas O’Sullivan, associate professor of electrical engineering and co-author of the paper. “It turns out that the kind of light, in this case green, that doesn’t penetrate as deeply, has the capability of producing a more robust response against the cancer cells.”

A dye with light-sensitive molecules is injected into tumor cells. An external antenna turns on the device before the dye absorbs the light and transforms it into energy that turns the cancer cells’ oxygen toxic. This process causes the cells to destroy themselves.

“Working together, biochemistry graduate student, Hailey Sanders, and electrical engineering graduate student, SungHoon Rho, perceptively noted that the treated cells were swelling, which is the hallmark of a kind of cell death, pyroptosis, that’s particularly good at triggering the immune response,” said Bradley Smith, professor of chemistry and biochemistry and co-author on the paper.

He continued, “Our goal is to induce just a little bit of pyroptotic cell death, which will then trigger the immune system to start attacking the cancer.”

The team wants to experiment with this device on mice next. By doing so, they hope to determine if the cancer-killing response in one tumor causes the immune system to identify and attack other cancer cells. This technology could help progress deep-rooted cancer treatments.

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