You mentioned in the background that SPIONs key therapeutic function is their capacity for magnetism. By increasing the cytoplasmic temperature by 5-8 degrees Celsius to kill off cancer, does this cause damage to other vital cytoplasmic organelles?
The therapeutic function of the SPIONs regarding magnetism revolves around their ability to induce “Magnetic Fluid Hypothermia,” or MFH. Within MFH, the magnetic energy is converted to heat energy and the cells are essentially “cooked.” It is a random enough process that it is unclear which organelles specifically are damaged, but it could definitely damage any or even all of them!
If you were to conduct this research again, what do you think the best approach would be to not yield inconclusive results? Of course, some variables are out of your control, but this treatment seems promising, so I am just curious as to how it could be proven effective.
There are several limitations I consider to be the main ones and ones that I would change if I were to redo the experiment. The first is time; if we had time to do more vials, it is possible we would have more effective data and our results would be more well rounded. I also mentioned near the end of the video that I would like to count the larvae going into the vials, this would put that variable in our control and we would ensure we have quality data for each vial. That’s just two examples, there are lots of things I would love to do again regarding this experiment.
Since this is such a beginning point in the drug discovery process, there is tons of room for our work specifically to be picked up and maybe even brought all the way to clinical trials. That being said, SPIONs are also being studied in many different contexts outside of cancer. Furthermore, there is also research being done on other nanoparticles that are not super paramagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles. So short answer, yes!
Aside from Magnetic Fluid Hypothermia, there is no known mechanisms about how a raw SPION will act in a cell. This experiment sought to establish a meaningful connection between survival rate and SPION concentration, further research could then be done to examine exactly what mechanism SPIONS use to affect survival rate.
You mentioned that one potential change you could make to the experiment is counting the larvae added. Any ideas on how to do that? They’re too small to physically count one by one
Actually, physically counting them was exactly what I was suggesting! While sorting the sizes of larvae in the sieves as I mentioned in the methods section, it is easy to actually see the larvae. While it would be extremely tedious to count them out for each vial, it would not be impossible!
You mentioned in the background that SPIONs key therapeutic function is their capacity for magnetism. By increasing the cytoplasmic temperature by 5-8 degrees Celsius to kill off cancer, does this cause damage to other vital cytoplasmic organelles?
The therapeutic function of the SPIONs regarding magnetism revolves around their ability to induce “Magnetic Fluid Hypothermia,” or MFH. Within MFH, the magnetic energy is converted to heat energy and the cells are essentially “cooked.” It is a random enough process that it is unclear which organelles specifically are damaged, but it could definitely damage any or even all of them!
If you were to conduct this research again, what do you think the best approach would be to not yield inconclusive results? Of course, some variables are out of your control, but this treatment seems promising, so I am just curious as to how it could be proven effective.
There are several limitations I consider to be the main ones and ones that I would change if I were to redo the experiment. The first is time; if we had time to do more vials, it is possible we would have more effective data and our results would be more well rounded. I also mentioned near the end of the video that I would like to count the larvae going into the vials, this would put that variable in our control and we would ensure we have quality data for each vial. That’s just two examples, there are lots of things I would love to do again regarding this experiment.
This treatment does seem like it warrants some further research! Are there any plans for future labs to continue your work/continuing it yourself?
Since this is such a beginning point in the drug discovery process, there is tons of room for our work specifically to be picked up and maybe even brought all the way to clinical trials. That being said, SPIONs are also being studied in many different contexts outside of cancer. Furthermore, there is also research being done on other nanoparticles that are not super paramagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles. So short answer, yes!
Why do spions decrease survival rate? What mechanism do they target?
Aside from Magnetic Fluid Hypothermia, there is no known mechanisms about how a raw SPION will act in a cell. This experiment sought to establish a meaningful connection between survival rate and SPION concentration, further research could then be done to examine exactly what mechanism SPIONS use to affect survival rate.
You mentioned that one potential change you could make to the experiment is counting the larvae added. Any ideas on how to do that? They’re too small to physically count one by one
Actually, physically counting them was exactly what I was suggesting! While sorting the sizes of larvae in the sieves as I mentioned in the methods section, it is easy to actually see the larvae. While it would be extremely tedious to count them out for each vial, it would not be impossible!