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Nanotechnology Applied to Battlefield Hemeostasis

http://www.grllabs.com/abstracts/

Arthur N. Thorpe1, David Rafati4 (david.rafati@datonline.com);  Frank Senftle1, Aaron Barkat2, Ashgar Ghias4; Julias Grant1, Don Weaver3; Department of Physics and Astronomy1, Howard University, Washington, DC; Department of Chemistry2, The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC;General Research Laboratory3, Washington, DC;Data Access Technology4, Washington, DC;

Context:  Nanotechnology deals with the understanding and control of matter at dimensions of roughly 1-100 nanometers.  At the nano-particle level materials often exhibit unique properties affecting their physical, chemical, and biological properties.  Potential health effects may arise as a result of occupational exposures in the manufacture and use of nano-materials thus extra precautions limiting exposure must be taken.  The challenge in using nano-technology is to find application in science and remove any potential health hazards.  Only after the substances are benign can we apply the nano-particles in healthcare as useful products.  We have recently managed to produce a preparation of submicron Fe3O4 nano-particle aggregates encapsulated in a hydrophobic epoxy matrix which is benign and non-toxic.  We have found the particles possess super-paramagnetic properties.  One envisioned application of these particles may be utilization in angiogenesis therapy to pinch off the blood supply of a tumor.  More significantly, it maybe used as a potent Hemeostasis agent on the battle-field, during a disaster, during surgery or in any treatment of mass casualties.

Technology:  In our study we utilized the services of an information technology company, Data Access Technology (DAT), to survey and develop an end to end integrated system for our lab.  Our system is hosted on an Oracle database, with Java Server Pages (JSP) allowing for remote access over a Virtual Private Network (VPN).  Our application acts as both a repository for findings and as a content management system.  The application allows our researches to collaborate sharing data and accessing the work of any team member.
Oracle 9i Database, Oracle 9i Application Server, Windows 2000 Server, Windows 2003 Server, Sonicwall Firewalls, Dell PowerEdge Servers, Java 4.1, JSP, MYSQL, PHP, PL/SQL

Design:  The first stage of proposed study involves laboratory scale preparation of epoxy encapsulated magnetite at concentrations high enough to provide specific magnetization without causing magnetic interaction between the aggregates.  The epoxy grains are sized down to dimensions of 2-3 microns suitable for transport through the blood.  These grains are then processed to ensure none of the granular magnetite directly contacts other magnetite particles.  Several batches of the product will be prepared under a quality assurance program intended to assure replication and adequate characterization.  In the second step the production of the epoxy encapsulated magnetite will be scaled up to provide sufficient quantities of the product for animal studies.  In later stages studies will be conducted to evaluate the efficacy as well as the toxicity of the product.   In the early phases of this study the ability of particles to be magnetically directed to a bleeding site in an angiogenesis model will be the primary goal.  Once successful, these studies will be carried out in small laboratory animals to test the hypothesis.
 
Results:   The initial data validation has been positive.  The magnetic properties of the nano-particles have remained consistent both with and without the epoxy encapsulation.  As part of our quality assurance the initial testing was preformed independently by two separate teams both yielding matching results.

Conclusion:  The properties of the nano-particles are predicable and independent experiments have verified hypothesizes up to this point.  Furthermore, the properties of the encapsulated nano-particles once placed inside the epoxy retain all magnetic susceptibility.