A self-charging battery that consumed oxygen in mice with cancer caused their tumors to shrink or disappear. / Photo: AFP/Getty Images
Foto: ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT/AFP/Getty Images
A new scientific experiment revealed that some tiny battery-powered implants can shrink tumors or even disappear after a controlled treatment of a couple of weeks.
According to a new study from Fudan University in Shanghai (China) a tiny implant that contained a battery managed to cure breast cancer in mice in just two weeks.
The Self-charging battery that consumes oxygen in cancer miceexplains the study published in Science Advances, made their tumors shrink or disappeared when used together with an experimental class of anticancer drugs.
Research cited by New Scientist explains that When growing, most tumors consume oxygen from surrounding non-cancerous tissues, so their cells become hypoxic.. One class of drugs, called hypoxia-activated prodrugs (HAPs), tries to take advantage of this feature by killing only cells that are hypoxic, so that healthy cells are less affected and the side effects of treatment are reduced.
The experiment in progress
Fan Zhang and his colleagues developed an implanted, self-charging battery that works with salt water injected around it, which causes the battery to produce very low voltage electricity and consume oxygen. By creating a hypoxic environment, the battery should optimize the action of PAHs.
To prove the above, the researchers implanted the battery in some armpits of 25 mice with breast cancer. Five received the running battery and PAH treatment. The remaining mice were divided into groups that either received no treatment, received only HAP drugs, or were implanted with a non-functioning battery or only the functional battery, which can function for up to 500 hours in tissue. mouse.
Fourteen days later, the Tumors had shrunk an average of 90% in the five mice that received the working battery and HAP treatment., and completely disappeared in four of them. The tumors remained the same size or grew in the other groups of mice.
Zhang points out that while the battery did not cause safety concerns when used in mice, the safety bar is higher for people.
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