Nanotech robots deliver gene therapy via blood
A team of researchers in California Institute of Technology in Pasadena have produced tiny nanoparticle robots that can move through human blood and into tumours where they deliver a therapy that puts off an crucial cancer gene.
The tiny polymer robots are covered with a protein addressed as transferrin that search out a receptor or molecular doorway on numerous different types of tumors.
When the nano robots ascertain the cancer cell and get inside, they collapse, expelling minuscule intrusive RNAs or siRNAs that block a gene that constructs a cancer growth protein called ribonucleotide reductase.
"In the particle itself, we've built what we call a chemical sensor," Mark Davis, a professor of chemical engineering, who led the study said in a phone interview.
In the first phase of this experimental treatment, the team of researchers applied doses of the pointed nanoparticles 4 times across 21 days in a 30-minute intravenous infusion.
Tumour samples acquired of 3 patients with melanoma evidenced that the nanoparticles discovered their way deep down tumor cells.
They also found proof that this experimental therapy had disabled ribonucleotide reductase, indicating the RNA had worked as expected.
It's hard to say at this moment if this experimental treatment helped shrink tumors in the patients tested, just one patient did get a second cycle of treatment, evoking it might be.
The tiny polymer robots are covered with a protein addressed as transferrin that search out a receptor or molecular doorway on numerous different types of tumors.
When the nano robots ascertain the cancer cell and get inside, they collapse, expelling minuscule intrusive RNAs or siRNAs that block a gene that constructs a cancer growth protein called ribonucleotide reductase.
"In the particle itself, we've built what we call a chemical sensor," Mark Davis, a professor of chemical engineering, who led the study said in a phone interview.
In the first phase of this experimental treatment, the team of researchers applied doses of the pointed nanoparticles 4 times across 21 days in a 30-minute intravenous infusion.
Tumour samples acquired of 3 patients with melanoma evidenced that the nanoparticles discovered their way deep down tumor cells.
They also found proof that this experimental therapy had disabled ribonucleotide reductase, indicating the RNA had worked as expected.
It's hard to say at this moment if this experimental treatment helped shrink tumors in the patients tested, just one patient did get a second cycle of treatment, evoking it might be.
