Blue Jean Dye: Cancer Killer

By Zack Grun
Manifest Staff Writer

Researchers at the United Kingdom’s University of East Anglia are now using nanotechnology to deliver cancer killing blue-jean dye directly to cells.

Scientist have known for 15 years that pthalocyanine, the common dye found in blue jeans and ball-point pens, has had cancer killing properties, but until now they had no way of delivering the agent into cells.

University scientists use tiny gold nano particles, 1/5000th the thickness of a human hair, as “Trojan horses,” sneaking the killer blue-jean dye directly into cells. When exposed to red laser light, the photosensitive pthalocyanine produces a highly reactive form of oxygen, which kills the cells instantly.

“It makes perfect sense,” says Prof. Mark Klemp of the UW-Marinette chemistry department. “As cancer cells are typically extremely aggressive in their growth, they take in just about all they can get.”

Healthy cells will also absorb the nano particles, but unlike their cancerous counterparts, they excrete the pthalocyanine, leaving them unharmed.

The procedure, known as photodynamic therapy, is not new. Compounds have been approved for PDT since 1995 although none would be as patient friendly as pthalocyanine. Unlike other PDT compounds, pthalocyanine cannot penetrate the skin, meaning patients will not be required to avoid sunlight after treatment due to the side effects of the accumulation of photosensitive particles in the skin.

If everything goes according to schedule, pthalocyanine nano particles will be available for human trials within the next five years. The nano particles will be given by intravenous injection into the bloodstream or directly into tumors.