From left, Professor Hwang Byung-hee of Incheon National University, Dr. Ryu Young-chae of Incheon National University, Master Cho Hye-min of Incheon National University

Korean researchers have developed a new ultrasonic reactive nanocluster that can be used universally in the treatment of cancer without targeted anticancer drugs, including solid cancers such as triple-negative breast cancer. 

Professor Hwang Byung-hee's team (co-first authors: Cho Hye-min and Ryu Young-chae) at Incheon National University (President Park Jong-tae, hereinafter referred to as Incheon National University) and Professor Seo Jeong-hyun's team at Yeungnam University (first author: Dr. Song Young-hoon) said they succeeded in developing nanoclusters for anticancer treatment that show ultrasonic reactive effects in triple-negative breast cancer cells.

Triple-negative breast cancer is an urgent field to develop selective anticancer drugs due to the lack of targeted anticancer drugs, causing many side effects when treating anticancer drugs and high recurrence rates. It has been demonstrated that anticancer nanoclusters made by coating anticancer drugs doxorubicin and silica nanoparticles with carbohydrate levan with electrospray technology accumulate well in breast cancer cells and can be effectively treated by efficiently delivering anticancer drugs and nanoparticles to solid cancer through ultrasonic reactions.

Hwang Byung-hee, a professor of biotechnology at Incheon National University, explained, "The ultrasonic reactive anticancer nanocluster developed in this study could be a new treatment that greatly increases the permeability and treatment efficacy of anticancer drugs by penetrating the dense extracellular matrix of solid cancers without existing target anticancer drugs."

If it is developed as a selective anticancer drug through further development of this technology, it is currently about $250 billion and is expected to have a great economic impact in the rapidly growing anticancer drug market worldwide.

The study was carried out with the support of the Korea Research Foundation's basic research project in the field of science and technology and was published on May 1 in ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, an authoritative paper in the biological materials sector.