Surgical Cement Heals Spinal Fractures with Magnetic, Targeted Drug Delivery (ODTMag)
Patients with spinal fractures caused by tumors or osteoporosis usually undergo a procedure called kyphoplasty, where the fracture is filled with surgical cement. While kyphoplasty can stabilize the bone, cancer patients are still often left with spinal column tumors that are very hard to reach with conventional chemotherapy, which has to cross the blood-brain barrier when delivered intravenously.
Now, researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago reported in the journal PLOS ONE, that by adding magnetic particles to surgical cement used to heal spinal fractures, they could guide magnetic nanoparticles directly to lesions near the fractures. Nanoparticles bound to various drugs have been used to target drugs to specific locations or types of cells in the body. Most commonly, this is achieved by binding a minute amount of drug to the nanoparticle, which is designed to also bind to a specific type of cell, such as a cancer cell.
"By modifying the kyphoplasty bone cement, we can both stabilize the spinal column and provide a targeted drug delivery system. This is a very promising technology as...
