Nanotechnology Used in Blood Analysis

24 May 2007

As scientists explore the potential for applying Nanotechnology in the biomedical field, a group of researchers has discovered a technique for analyzing nanoparticles in the blood stream and human tissue. Both the National Cancer Institute and the Nanotechnology Characterization Laboratory have developed a method for looking at two types of nanoparticles belonging to the fullerene family. These are carbon based molecules which take a variety of forms—known as allotropes—and which exhibit different behaviors in various circumstances. Being able to detect these fullerenes in the blood stream would make them invaluable for imaging analysis applications.

Scientists use a technique called capillary electrophoresis to inspect the two types of fullerenes, carbonyxfullerenes and dendrofullerenes, which have different shapes and which are being considered for medical applications. Researchers compared a variety of techniques for inspecting and quantifying these fullerenes: capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) and micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MECK). Both techniques are similar in functionality except that MECK performs additional molecular separation of the nanoparticles.

Based on their study the researchers concluded that the CZE technique was significantly faster and more effective at analyzing and quantifying the presence of the fullerenes injected into the bloodstream, with concentrations in the range of 0 to 500 micrograms per milliliter. It will not be long before these techniques can be applied a wide range of medical tools using Nanotechnology to perform diagnosis and detection of disease.

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