Nano-particles fighting cancer

[toastywombel]

http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/24841/page1/

 

You gotta check this article out it is sweet!

 

"RNA-Loaded Nanoparticles Fight Cancer"

 

"The researchers developed a nanoparticle carrying a molecular marker that binds to the surface of cancer cells, triggering the cells to absorb it. The siRNA carried within the particle was designed to silence a gene called ribonucleotide reductase M2 (RRM2), which regulates DNA synthesis and repair and is known to be an anticancer target. Because it was the first trial using targeted RNAi delivery for cancer, says Mark Davis, a professor of chemical engineering at Caltech and the study's lead author, "we wanted to choose a gene that was suspected to be hugely upregulated in a broad spectrum of cancers" in order to increase the likelihood of being able to observe the novel therapy's effect."

[CharonY]

Interesting, but too early to know whether this will be useful. Nanomaterials are being used in drug delivery systems already and are at least under investigation e.g. for delivery of cisplatin or similar compounds into cancer cells. But whether these methods will be useful in clinical settings remains to be seen in the coming years.