Google Developing a Pill To Detect Cancer

An anonymous reader writes: The Google X research lab has unveiled a new project: developing a pill capable of detecting cancer, imminent heart attacks, and other diseases. According to the article, "the company is fashioning nanoparticles—particles about one billionth of a meter in width—that combine a magnetic material with antibodies or proteins that can attach to and detect other molecules inside the body." When a person ingests the pill, these particles interact with the particular markers for a given disease. Since they're magnetic, they can then be guided back to a particular spot where they can be scanned to determine if any interactions took place. Google X's head of life sciences, Andrew Conrad, said, "What we are trying to do is change medicine from reactive and transactional to proactive and preventative. Nanoparticles... give you the ability to explore the body at a molecular and cellular level."

Comments

Hype or real?

[Chipmunk100]

How do these particles avoid gut enzymes, once in the blood how do these particles avoid phagocytosis by macrophages, how can you expect that magnetic dragging of a number of these particles will not be deleterious, for example some of these got into cellular organelles being forcefully pulled out through their membranes etc. Either it is crazy or there is something ingenious about it.

Looks cloud-enabled.

[Animats]

The pill transmits to a wrist sensor. Of course, that will transmit to an Android phone, which will upload the data to Google's servers. You'll need a Google account, of course. All that data will be available to you (and, of course, Google's "affiliates") via a newly reactivated Google Health.

So Many Questions

[Anonymous Coward]

So, once the antibody attaches to something, how do you get it to detach so that it can go to the rendezvous point?
So you inject a thousand different particles, how do you "read" which ones interacted with something?
Hmm, you also have to have a marker for each disease - a marker that is extraordinarily specific. These don't exist either.

While I hope it works, I suspect that this project this project will go nowhere. BTW - antibodies are about 14 nm long, 9 nm wide, probably about 4 nm in smallest dimension (possibly much larger, depending on the type of antibody) which is significantly larger than the story implies. I'll believe it when I see it.

Sounds to me like someone has done some creative writing to get their project funded.

Re:So Many Questions

[wierd_w]

antibodies are special proteins generated by your body to attach to, and then neutralize foreign bodies for elimination either in the liver, or via excretion through the renal system.

This means the bodies are fully free-floating in the circulatory system, and are much smaller in size than are red or white corpuscles. These are basically just large molecules, compared to WHOLE GODDAMN CELLS you have suspended in your blood plasma. (For a reasonable comparison, compare a golfball to a semi truck. An antibody is the size of a golfball, and the blood cell is the size of the semi truck.)

The antibody is tethered to a magnetic nanoparticle, which means that it will get stuck in soft tissues where a magnetic field is applied. So, wear a magnet on the wrist, and underneath that magnet, the nanoparticles will be held by the penetrating field lines, and they will accumulate in the soft tissue there. They can then be statistically sampled using a simple needle biopsy of this soft tissue at the collection site.

The antibodies will also stick to biproducts of certain diseases, and serve as a means to concentrate these biproducts at the collection site for effective diagnosis, even when disease is in early stages, and these biproducts would be in nearly undetectable levels in the blood serum otherwise.

The issue they need to address is what risks do the remaining aggregated particles have on the health of the patient, (Since they may not get cleared by the body after the magnetic trap is removed, and may stick around and contribute to a local pathology) and are there any histological implications of adding synthetic antibodies to the patient. (Not everyone will respond well to having synthetic antibodies introduced. Let alone a large assortment of them, all at once. What happens when these antibodies bind strongly to cellular receptor sites, but then cant or wont let go, etc.)

It's a neat idea, but I want to see LOTS of animal model studies and considerable cultured tissue in vitro studies as well before this gets anywhere near a human.

Ten years from now:

[pushing-robot]

"I'm not sure I have cancer, but based on the ads I've been seeing lately..."

Please create or login to your Google+ account...

[Anonymous Coward]

..in order to view your upcoming heart attacks and your terminal diseases. Share the news with your circles so they can +1 you for support!

Preventative medicine

[ISoldat53]

My doctors don't believe in doing any tests that aren't indicated by an existing condition. Why cause concern if something is found? What about false positives? Is it going to cost a lot of money? Will insurance pay for it? Once a condition is diagnosed then insurance will pay for it but not before. Prventative medicine is not practices here.

Re:Preventative medicine

[Anonymous Coward]

My doctors don't believe in doing any tests that aren't indicated by an existing condition. Why cause concern if something is found? What about false positives? Is it going to cost a lot of money? Will insurance pay for it? Once a condition is diagnosed then insurance will pay for it but not before. Prventative medicine is not practices here.

You must not be in America. Here the doctor is sure to test your blood for cholesterol and write you a prescription for a statin, because that's what the drug reps tell them to do.

Ok

[TheDarkener]

"...the company is fashioning nanoparticles—particles about one billionth of a meter in width"

Because traditionally, measurements in the ingredients of pills are in meters.

Re:Ok

[fahrbot-bot]

"...the company is fashioning nanoparticles—particles about one billionth of a meter in width"

Because traditionally, measurements in the ingredients of pills are in meters.

Sure, only about one billionth of a meter in width, but the pills are *really* long ...

• Prof. Farnsworth: This is chance for Fry to test out my experimental Google Pill.
  [He pulls out a huge black pill.]
• Fry: I can't swallow that.
• Prof. Farnsworth: Well then good news! It's a suppository.

Subtle Diagnosis

[FrankDrebin]

"Hey, why did the | I'm Feeling Lucky | button disappear?"

This is fantasy

[rbc76]

Far and away the biggest challenge here is to figure out a "marker of a given disease". If the "marker" is something circulating in the blood, then this project is basically developing a chemistry test that can be ingested as a pill, absorbed into the blood, run autonomously in the bloodstream, collected magnetically and interpreted on the spot. Alternatively, you could do a simple blood draw and send the tube to the lab. Right now, we don't have any effective cancer screening based on this approach. If the "marker" is bound to a cell, this gets even harder. Presumably, the "marker" would be something that doesn't belong on the cell. However, your immune system is an expert at detecting what should and should not be on a cell surface. The nanoparticle must be able to figure out that the cell surface "marker" doesn't belong there, and do this more efficiently than your own immune system. That's a tall order. If Google wants to make a major contribution, forget the nanoparticle. Just figure out the markers. It would easily be worth a Nobel prize (possibly several).