Scientists claim nanoparticle injections may be key to humans surviving trip to Mars

Nanoparticle injections may be the answer to helping astronauts with health problems they pick up during long journeys and prolonged time in space, according to a biotech startup.

After just six months in space, astronauts are at risk of sepsis due to being exposed to cancer-causing radiation and immune system dysregulation.

So basically, the longer an astronauts remains in space, the longer they're exposed to radiation and dysregulation meaning an increased chance of developing an illness.

But scientists are seeking to combat this problem.

Nanotics has been chosen to take part in SPACE-H Accelerator programme which has the support of NASAs Human Research Program and Microsoft Federal.

Given that NASA and Space X's Elon Musk believe we will be sending humans to Mars by the 2030s - a journey which takes nine months one-way and three years for a round trip - finding ways to treat astronauts ailments will be important for lengthy missions like this.

iStockphoto by Getty Images

But just how much radiation are astronauts exposed to?

"Every six months, according to Nasa's own data, astronauts are exposed to the equivalent of 1,000 chest X-rays," Lou Hawthorne, founder and CEO of Nanotics, told The Sun.

"And on a three-year round-trip journey, you're looking at 6,000 chest X-rays. That's extremely tumorigenic, meaning it induces tumors."

He added: "It's also extremely pro-inflammatory, so it induces these profound inflammatory responses which can lead to sepsis."

Hawthrone went on to describe space as the "most challenging environment to be in from a health maintenance perspective" due to the fact us humans have "no evolutionary context for zero gravity," meaning "the body reacts to that in unpredictable ways over time".

"It's fun and games for a few days, but over time, the body is very confused and certain systems at an organ, tissue, cell and signal level don't work exactly as they do in normal gravity.

"Radiation is a huge factor. It's far beyond anything that humans are used to on Earth, and that's going to promote all sorts of diseases," and added a long space flight will only "amplify" any potential health problems.

While astronauts require a clean bill of health for missions, even the healthiest could have "sleeping" diseases that wake up when in space.

Currently, nanomedicine is helping to combat conditions such as conjunctivitis and glaucoma but research published in August by Nature reckons there is "great potential" for nanomedicine to help treat cancer.

That's where Hawthorne's NaNots comes in which can stop tumors from sending messages to the immune systems that allow it to grow so that the immune system can shrink it or fight off a sepsis infection.

This is at the preclinical stage at the moment, so cannot by used astronauts right now but can potentially in the future if there are successful human trials.

So far, Hawthorne says this has worked on "various animal models of disease" including humanised mice and that NaNots counteracted the molecules responsible for sepsis in a mouse model.

Additionally, it is important to note nano-drugs are experimental, with less than 10 per cent of medicines being approved over safety issues in preclinical and clinical stages.

Nanotics has recently secured $1million from an investor and is trying to raise $300million in order to fund human studies and if they meet this goal, Hawthorne believes his company can begin human trials within 16 to 18 months.

What also makes the syringe injections ideal for space is that they are "incredibly compact" which Hawthorne has said astronauts "could pack enough for five years for a dozen astronauts easily in a package the size of a microwave oven".

"We don't have large machines like MRIs, CTs, big radiation machines, cyclotrons and gamma knives and things like that... in space," he explained.

"So, you need something that treats disease at the molecular roots and is super compact and doesn't require returning to Earth."

On Earth, there are devices called ELISA kits where a simple finger-prick blood test can analyse if there are any abnormalities but other companies are seeking to modify this for this technology to be used by astronauts in space.

Ultimately, the end goal for Nanotics is to be able to make syringes for different conditions astronauts are more susceptible to in space and they pick the syringe they need, then administer it through an IV themselves.

"Anywhere people go, I think this should be in the toolkit," Hawthorne concluded.

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