Arthur J. Villasanta – Fourth Estate Contributor
Oakland, CA, United States (4E) – An accidental lab discovery by scientists at the University of California (UC) San Diego School of Medicine has opened the door to wide-scale improvements in drug screening, application of selective painkillers and selectively eliminating cancer cells. The discovery involves graphene, a semi-metal composed of a single layer of carbon atoms.
Graphene is now being used to make flexible OLED displays and reduce the energy costs of desalination. Its potential benefits for the medical field also look promising.
UC scientists knew graphene could convert light into electricity, and wondered if that electricity had the capacity to stimulate human cells. Graphene is extremely sensitive to light (1,000 times more than traditional digital cameras and smartphones), and after experimenting with different light intensities, researchers discovered that cells could indeed be stimulated via optical graphene stimulation.
“I was looking at the microscope’s computer screen and I’m turning the knob for light intensity and I see the cells start beating faster,” said Alex Savchenko, team leader. “I showed that to our grad students and they were yelling and jumping and asking if they could turn the knob. We had never seen this possibility of controlling cell contraction.”
Savchenko believes this is significant because it gives researchers a way to culture cells as if they’re working inside the body. This means that instead of resorting to petri dishes, scientists can artificially stimulate a pain response in neurons, then develop an anti-pain drug dealing only with pain receptors involved in that specific instance. Because the process will only work as a pain treatment, it doesn’t possess the ability to become a recreational drug in the way morphine or codeine might. Both these substances are known to cause withdrawal and dependency.
The potentially groundbreaking takeaway is graphene’s ability to wipe out cancerous cells without damaging neighboring healthy cells. Experts said the electrical resting potential (ERP) of cancer cells is usually lower than healthy cells, which means it takes far less electrical stimulation to open their ion channels, and if kept open long enough, a deathly influx of ions can nuke or destroy them.
More research is needed before Savchenko and his team can move to human trials, thereby determining whether it can become a viable therapeutic solution. Certain forms of graphene can be toxic to humans, and the long term side effects, if any, are still relatively unknown.
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