Ever More Capable Nanoparticles
(Via EurekAlert!). Medical researchers are demonstrating the construction of ever more complex nanoparticles; as soon as you can safely chain together multiple utility molecules, the sky is the limit. Every new key to metabolism and cellular processes is another tool to add to your latest creation. This is important, because these sorts of modular nanoparticles are looking very promising indeed when it comes to curing cancer. For example, researchers have "developed nanoparticles that seek out tumors and bind to their blood vessels, and then attract more nanoparticles to the tumor target. ... the homing nanoparticle could be used to deliver a 'payload' of an imaging compound, and in the process act as a clotting agent, obstructing as much as 20% of the tumor blood vessels. ... we are now optimizing the process, hoping to obtain a more complete shut-down of blood flow into the tumor to strangle it. We are also in the process of adding a drug delivery function to the particles. These two approaches are synergistic; the more particles we bring into the tumor, the greater the obstruction of the blood flow and more of the drug is delivered into the tumor."
Link: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-01/bi-hnp010807.php