When nanoparticles are used for drug delivery, they often end up in the liver or spleen instead of the intended target.
A team led by Jacob S. Brenner and Vladimir Muzykantov of the University of Pennsylvania now shows that nanocarrier delivery can be improved by the having the nanocarriers “hitchhike” on red blood cells (Nat. Commun. 2018, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-05079-7). The researchers withdrew red blood cells from mice and incubated them with nanoparticles, which adsorbed on the cell surface.
They then injected the cells back into the animals through arterial catheters. When injected this way, the nanocarriers accumulate in the first organ they encounter downstream from the injection site. The researchers think the narrow capillaries cause the nanoparticles to detach from the blood cells and transfer to the cells lining the capillaries.
Image Credit: Nat. Commun
News This Week
Immune Response to COVID-19 Strengthens Over Time – Important Implications for Vaccine Boosters
Study suggests people who have had COVID-19 benefit from vaccination, even if they’ve delayed it. Immunity from COVID-19 appears to gather strength with more time between vaccination and infection, a new laboratory study from researchers at [...]
Scientists Use Exotic DNA To Help Create “Climate-Proof” Crops
The incorporation of exotic DNA from wild relatives into wheat results in a remarkable yield increase of up to 50%, even in hot weather, surpassing elite lines without these genes. Amid a year of [...]
Australia becomes first country to recognise psychedelics as medicines
Australia has become the first country to recognise psychedelics as medicines, after the Therapeutic Goods Administration took researchers by surprise and approved the psychedelic substances in magic mushrooms and MDMA for use by people [...]
Silver nanoparticles show promise in fighting antibiotic-resistant bacteria
In a new study, scientists with the University of Florida have found that a combination of silver nanoparticles and antibiotics is effective against antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The researchers hope to turn this discovery into viable [...]
Combating severe cancer with a new drug delivery system
Peritoneal cancer is difficult to treat and has a poor survival prognosis. But a new and effective nanomedicine delivery system is offering some hope. The company is called NaDeNo and is well underway with [...]
New Research Shows How Ketamine Acts As “Switch” in the Brain
According to a new study by researchers at Penn Medicine, ketamine, which is well-known as an anesthetic and is becoming increasingly popular as an antidepressant, dramatically reorganizes activity in the brain, almost as if [...]
Supercharged T Cells: A New Way To Kill Pancreatic Cancer With Minimal Side Effects
A new immunotherapy releases cancer-killing cytokines only within the tumor. Researchers at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) have developed a new T cell-based immunotherapy that selectively targets cancer cells, producing a powerful anti-cancer cytokine [...]
AI has designed bacteria-killing proteins from scratch – and they work
An AI was tasked with creating proteins with anti-microbial properties. Researchers then created a subset of the proteins and found some did the job. An AI has designed anti-microbial proteins that were then tested [...]
Leave A Comment