Old Chemotherapies Made Better, Safer By Targeting

Cancer chemotherapy is harrowing is because it is indiscriminate. But all of the old chemotherapies can be made much better and safer when used as the payload in one of the new cell targeting nanotechnologies: researchers "have developed a nano-sized vehicle with the ability to deliver chemotherapy drugs directly into cancer cells while avoiding interaction with healthy cells, increasing the efficiency of chemotherapeutic treatment while reducing its side effects. ... Inside the nano-vehicle itself are tiny particles of chemotherapy drugs. When the delivery vehicle comes into contact with cancer cells, it releases the chemotherapeutic payload directly into the cell. ... the nanomedical device can be used to treat many different types of cancer, including lung, blood, colon, breast, ovarian, pancreatic, and even several types of brain cancers. ... The key to the drug delivery platform is the molecule used to create the outer coating of this cluster nano-vehicle, a sugar recognized by receptors on many types of cancer cells. ... When the nano-vehicle interacts with the receptor on the cancerous cell, the receptor undergoes a structural change and the chemotherapy payload is released directly into the cancer cell. [This] leads to more focused chemotherapeutic treatment against the diseased cells. ... clinical trials [should] begin in two years or less."

Link: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100823131739.htm

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