Word: chlorotoxin
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...paint is a blend of chlorotoxin derived from the scorpion (nonpoisonous to humans) and a fluorescent molecule that emits near-infrared light. The scorpion-derived peptide homes in on the cancer cells and binds to them, bypassing healthy cells, while the fluorescent tag is piggybacked on to the peptide. After doctors excise a tumor, they use a special camera that captures nearinfrared photons to then look at the body and see any stray cells the scalpel left behind. At those wavelengths, light from the fluorescent marker cannot be blocked by blood, other body fluids or even thin bone...
...paint is a blend of chlorotoxin derived from the scorpion (nonpoisonous to humans) and a fluorescent molecule that emits near infrared light. The scorpion-derived peptide homes in on the cancer cells and binds to them, bypassing healthy cells. The fluorescent tag is piggybacked onto the peptide. After doctors remove a tumor, they use a special camera that captures near infrared photons to look at the body and see any stray cells the scalpel left behind. At those wavelengths, light from the fluorescent marker cannot be blocked by blood, other body fluids or even thin bone...
...Chlorotoxin, a substance in the venom of the giant Israeli scorpion, a 5-in.-long species known as the "death stalker," may offer hope for the 25,000 Americans each year who have glioma, an incurable, rapidly spreading form of brain cancer. Surgery provides only a temporary respite, and the few experimental therapies extend a patient's life span only weeks...
Identified by neurobiologist Harald Sontheimer, of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, chlorotoxin targets glioma cells and blocks their fluid-balancing chloride channels, preventing them from shrinking and then migrating elsewhere in the brain. Sontheimer's group is about to submit a clinical-trial protocol to the FDA. If approved, as many as 30 glioma patients could begin receiving chlorotoxin tagged with radioactive iodine as early as July. If the strategy works, Sontheimer says, "chlorotoxin could become a platform for delivering all sorts of drugs...
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