Biodegradable nanospheres offer novel approach for treatment of toxin exposure and drug delivery

A new technology to clean the blood of victims of radiological, chemical and biological terrorist attacks is being developed jointly by Argonne National Laboratory, the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute and The University of Chicago Hospitals.

In addition to cleaning biological and radiological toxins from blood, the technology shows promise for delivering therapeutic drugs to targeted cells and organs. The technology uses components approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and a novel approach to magnetic filtration.

“The best that doctors can do for most biohazard exposure is supportive treatment,” said Michael Kaminski of Argonne ’s Chemical Engineering Division. “This new system will be designed to directly remove the toxic agents from the bloodstream — quickly and efficiently.”

… “The key to the technology is biodegradable nanospheres 100 to 5,000 nanometers in diameter,” Kaminski said, “small enough to pass through tiny blood vessels, yet large enough to avoid being filtered from the bloodstream by the kidneys.” One nanometer is one millionth of a meter, about 70,000 times smaller than the diameter of an average human hair.

The particles contain a magnetic iron compound and are coated with a type of polyethylene glycol that prevents white blood cells from attacking them. Attached to the particles’ surfaces are proteins that bind to specific toxic agents. Intravenously injected into the patient, the nanospheres circulate through the bloodstream, where their surface proteins bind to the targeted toxins.

(Credit: Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute)