Diamonds may help doctors diagnose cancer earlier

The Northwestern University engineers behind the study said that there are two characteristics that make these nano-diamonds useful: their size and non-toxicity, which means that the immune system as well as the kidneys won’t attack them.

He says, “We knew nano diamonds were of interest for delivering drugs during chemotherapy because they are largely non-toxic and non-reactive”.

The gem does not light up on its own in an MRI scan but the researchers were able to devise a way so light from nanoscale, synthetic versions of diamond would be visible inside an MRI machine and indicate the presence of cancer.

Due to the diamonds’ being non-toxic and magnetic they could function as beacons in MRI devices, according to Nature World Report.

Using specifically managed chemicals is not a new science in cancer investigations but the struggle remained in detecting where these chemicals go since there are few ways to evaluate its effectivity.

In 2013 the European Union’s (EU) project DINAMO used diamonds’ unique properties to create an innovative method to examine the molecular processes taking place in living cells. The in the beginning of exposure of a given cancers aid in impactful treatment method and use everyday lives of many different most cancers affected individuals.

The study was conducted by physics professor, David Reilly, and a group of doctors at the University of Sydney.

The University of Sydney team believes that the technology has great potential especially with cancers that are really hard to detect at the beginning such as pancreatic and brain cancers. Since these diamonds are non-toxic, they can be used in biomedical and mechanical applications.

Researchers have plans of using this discovery for detecting tumors that are usually not diagnosed at an early stage i.e. before they become life threatening. We effectively turned a pharmaceutical problem into a physics problem.

“By attaching hyperpolarised diamonds to molecules targeting cancers the technique can allow tracking of the molecules’ movement in the body”, said Ewa Rej, the paper’s lead author to EurekAlert. The nano diamonds provided a roadmap of the cancer cells traveling in the body.

The next stage of the team’s work involves working with medical researchers to test the new technology on animals.