Cancer Therapeutics,
Inc. (OTCBB: CTHP), a biotechnology business incubator, with a specific
emphasis on disruptive treatments and nanotechnology, announced today its new
partner, NanoTherapies, Inc., is utilizing calcium phosphate nanoparticles to
detect and treat cancer. These particles are about 350 times smaller than a
human cell while providing both a safe and effective way to transport drugs
and imaging materials into diseased cells.
NanoTherapies has sole license and patent protection for the fundamental use
of calcium phosphate nanoparticles in medical applications for the treatment
and detection of blood cancers (all forms of leukemia). NanoTherapies has all
rights to manufacturing technologies and intellectual property required to produce
pharmaceutical quality drugs at the scale and yield needed for commercial viability.
Calcium phosphate is a major component of bones. NanoTherapies' calcium phosphate
NanoJackets clear the kidneys and liver without impact. They exit the body via
the colon, and their chemical properties enable them to circulate in the bloodstream
for prolonged periods yet dissolve in diseased cells, thereby releasing the
drug. Metallic, silicon and carbon based nanoparticles cannot make the same
claims regarding biocompatibility for humans nor do they have the chemical or
physical properties that allow effective drug release in diseased cells.
Patient benefits from drugs jacketed with calcium phosphate nanoparticles are
immense. Early lab studies show a ten-fold reduction in toxicity with a seven-fold
increase in effectiveness for drugs delivered using NT's technology. This means
dramatically reduced side-effects owing to the severe toxicity of cancer drugs
and increased effectiveness because the half-life of the drug is increased from
minutes to hours. Most cancer drugs kill all the cells they contact and dissipate
in less than thirty minutes. NT's nanojackets encapsulate the drugs for up to
thirty hours before being cleared from the body or until the nanoparticle enters
a cancerous cell and release the drug. NT's technology moves drug delivery strategies
from carpet-bombing to smart-bombing with the corresponding dramatic decrease
in collateral damage.
In the same way NT's nanoparticles deliver drugs to cancerous cells they can
also transport imaging dyes that fluoresce under near infrared light to reveal
cancerous cells. Imaging cancer at the cellular level enables new methods of
early detection of cancer as well as post-treatment and post-operative evaluation.