NEWS OF THE WEEK
CLIMATE-CHANGE ACTION
the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposal to cut carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants. “We are going to need to get prepared,” the President warned in June about the impacts of climate change, stressing that states and cities across the nation are already moving to protect themselves against climate-driven problems. The new task force includes the governors of eight states, 16 local officials, and two tribal representatives. Within one year of its creation, the group is supposed to recommend ways to modernize federal, state, and local programs to avoid or better protect against climaterelated disasters. The task force is also to develop climate preparedness tools and provide disaster-related guidance, information, and programs for states, local communities, and tribes. Under the executive order, the task force dissolves six months after issuing its recommendations. The creation of the task force was endorsed by several environmental organizations and utilities as well as some industry groups. The National Electrical Manufacturers Association, for instance, stressed the need for the task force to consider new smart electrical technologies and a more robust electrical grid to avoid power outages from more frequent superstorms. The executive order also affects federal agencies and calls on them to work with state and local governments to mitigate climate-change impacts.—JEFF JOHNSON
ADMINISTRATION: President Obama
orders a task force to examine mitigation of climate impacts
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ETERMINING WAYS to limit the worst impacts
of climate change will be the responsibility of a new task force of local, state, and federal officials created by President Barack Obama under an executive order he issued on Nov. 1. The task force will lay out a strategy for how the nation should prepare for, protect against, and adapt to the increasing likelihood of climate-changerelated disasters—scorching heat, sealevel rise, wildfires, droughts, floods, and storms, to name a few. Obama’s order is part of a much larger national Climate Action Plan that he announced last June (C&EN, July 1, page 5). The President’s climate plan includes many other more sweeping and controversial elements—for example, NOAH BERGER/EPA/NEWSCOM
A Presidential task force will recommend actions to limit climatechange disasters, such as wildfires in Western states.
IMPROVING DRUG DELIVERY CHEMOTHERAPY: Light activation improves penetration and efficacy of nanoparticles as carriers
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ANOPARTICLES ARE PROMISING cargo
ships for targeted drug delivery. But the materials have had limited success treating cancer, because they often can’t penetrate deep into tumors. The nanoparticles are stalled by Drug-carrying the extracelluar matrix and compressed nanoparticles UV light blood vessels. Light-activated Scientists have shone new nanoparticles light on the problem— literally—by deploying drugcarrying polymer nanoparticles that contract and gradually squeeze out their cargo when exposed to ultraviolet light. When Extracellular matrix mice with tumors are injected with the nanoparticles, shining light through the skin at the tumor CEN.ACS.ORG
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PROC. NATL. ACAD. SCI. USA
Nanoparticles carrying a cancer drug are administered to mice and exposed to UV light, causing them to contract and release the drug into tumors.
sites boosts drug release, killing cancer cells (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 2013, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1315336110). The research, by Daniel S. Kohane of Boston Children’s Hospital, Rong Tong of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and coworkers, builds on their work designing nanoparticles that reversibly contract and expand when exposed to light of certain wavelengths. The researchers implanted mice with fibroblastic sarcomas, just under the skin. They first injected nanoparticles containing a fluorescent dye into tumors as a tracer. Some tumors were irradiated with UV light, and others were not. The irradiated tumors showed a greater spread of the nanoparticles. Scientists then injected nanoparticles containing the cancer drug docetaxel into mice intravenously. Circulating blood carried most of the particles through the UV light on the tumor, activating them. Mice treated in this way had half as many cancer cells as control mice and larger diameter blood vessels in the tumor. The researchers caution that UV light can’t penetrate far into the body, so light endoscopy or nearinfrared-triggered nanoparticles might be necessary to reach deep tumors. The work was partially funded by the French pharmaceutical firm Sanofi. The current method’s limitations aren’t trivial, says biomedical engineer Jonathan F. Lovell of the University at Buffalo, SUNY, but such light-driven techniques could “address significant unmet medical needs in the clinic one day.”—PUNEET KOLLIPARA
NOVEMBER 11, 2013
