Medical use of Chlorotoxin
Chlorotoxin is currently in the testing process to help treat gliomas, a tumor that starts in the brain or in the spine. these types of tumors can be extremely dangerous causing brain damage and even death.
- Chlorotoxin molecules, colored blue and green, attach themselves to a central nanoparticle.
- This nano particle can be a medicine of sort, or even an irradiated particle used for precise chemo treatment.
- In b, each nanoprobe carries many chlorotoxin molecules that can simultaneously latch on to many MMP-2s (depicted here in yellow) these are thought to help tumor cells travel through the body.
- In c, the more time nanoprobes have to attach the more they will draw the MMP-2 surface proteins into the cell, slowing the tumor’s spread. (1)
- Tumor cells treated with nanoparticles plus chlorotoxin are unable to elongate and move through the body, as shown in the third column.
- The other columns show cancer cells that are: untreated; treated with chlorotoxin alone; and treated with nanoparticles alone. (1)
By: Steven Melter
- Deshane, Jessy, Craig C. Garner, and Harald Sontheimer. "Chlorotoxin Inhibits Glioma Cell Invasion Via Matrix Metalloproteinase-2." Journal of Biological Chemistry. 278.6 (2003). Print.