Scientists at RMIT University say their new research advances the potential of nanomedicine to cure conditions that are currently incurable, such as dementia and motor neurone disease. | |
Their work explores how nanoparticles would interact with cells in humans and provides fundamental knowledge to help improve nanomedicine and develop the next generation of personalised biomedical technologies. | |
Nanoparticles open the door to technologies that could improve treatments and disease diagnosis for patients, according to the scientists. | |
One of the lead researchers, Dr Aaron Elbourne, said nanoparticle technologies could ultimately improve drug delivery, cancer treatments, disease diagnostics and antimicrobials. | |
“Nanoparticles have been investigated as advanced nanomedicines, but they often miss the mark or fail to deliver their treatment to a specific location within the body,” said Elbourne, from the School of Science. | |
“The main challenge is to control how nanoparticles engage with cells to accurately deliver the medicine. This has been poorly understood until now, but our latest work offers a clearer picture of what is happening at that nano level.” |
Helping to design better nanomedicines and diagnostic nanoparticles |
|
Most nanoparticle technologies need to pass through a cell’s outer membrane to fulfill their function, Elbourne said. | |
“This membrane serves as an important protective barrier that isolates the internal cell environment from the surroundings, but it also poses a challenge for the delivery of nanoparticles.” | |
Elbourne said if scientists could overcome this challenge, it would potentially open a new era of medicine. | |
The latest study, led by RMIT in collaboration with the University of Durham and published in the ACS Nano journal (“Behavior of Citrate-Capped Ultrasmall Gold Nanoparticles on a Supported Lipid Bilayer Interface at Atomic Resolution”), tackles this problem by providing scientists a pathway to design more effective nanomedicines and diagnostic nanoparticles. | |
How they conducted the research |
|
Using atomic force microscopy along with computer simulations of molecular activity, the team discovered the precise mechanisms by which gold nanoparticles – a tiny fraction of the width of a human hair – interact with artificial cell membranes. | |
Fellow RMIT lead researcher, Dr Andrew Christofferson, said their work was unique. | |
“What makes this work unique is that we combine experiments and modelling to show a level of detail not seen before, and this will serve as a platform for future studies of nanoparticles and biological materials.” |
The potential to treat currently untreatable brain diseases |
|
The team says one of the main barriers to finding a cure for diseases such as dementia and motor neurone disease is the current inability to deliver treatments that can cross the blood-brain barrier, a membrane that blocks foreign entities reaching the brain. | |
First author and PhD researcher, Rashad Kariuki, was excited to work with nanoparticles that would be small enough to pass through this membrane. | |
“We currently have limited treatments that can pass through the blood-brain barrier because many are just too big or don’t interact favourably with this particular membrane,” he said. | |
“If we could use nanoparticles to treat brain diseases non-invasively, that would be a gamechanger.” | |
More work needs to be done before nanoparticles reach their full potential to help treat diseases but new wound treatments using this technology are in development, Elbourne said. | |
“We have collaborators at the University of South Australia that we’re working with on treatments for chronic and acute wounds,” Elbourne said. | |
“Ultimately, our work could positively impact a wide range of treatments, meaning better outcomes for patients and health systems.” |

News
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 [...]
Using nanoparticles, researchers can identify and deliver synergistic combinations of cancer drugs
Treating cancer with combinations of drugs can be more effective than using a single drug. However, figuring out the optimal combination of drugs, and making sure that all of the drugs reach the right [...]
Humanity May Reach Singularity Within Just 7 Years, Trend Shows
By one unique metric, we could approach technological singularity by the end of this decade, if not sooner. A translation company developed a metric, Time to Edit (TTE), to calculate the time it takes for professional [...]
HYPER (Highly Interactive Particle Relics) – A New Model for Dark Matter
Phase transition in early universe changes strength of interaction between dark and normal matter. Dark matter remains one of the greatest mysteries of modern physics. It is clear that it must exist, because without [...]
New Nanoparticles Deliver Therapy Brain-Wide and Edit Alzheimer’s Gene
Summary: Researchers have developed a new family of nano-scale capsules capable of carrying CRISPR gene editing tools to different organs of the body before harmlessly dissolving. The capsules were able to enter the brains of [...]
Cancer’s Secret Weapon? Enzyme That Protects Against Viruses May Fuel Tumor Evolution
An enzyme that defends human cells against viruses can help drive cancer evolution towards greater malignancy by causing myriad mutations in cancer cells, according to a study led by investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine. The [...]
Scientists Uncover Japanese Fruit Juice That May Help Prevent Lung Cancer
Using a mouse model, Japanese researchers unleash the likely mechanism of action of Actinidia arguta (sarunashi) juice on lung cancer development. Lung cancer is a leading cause of death in Japan and across the [...]
In-place manufacturing method improves gas sensor capabilities, production time
When used as wearable medical devices, stretchy, flexible gas sensors can identify health conditions or issues by detecting oxygen or carbon dioxide levels in the breath or sweat. They also are useful for monitoring [...]
In the core of the cell: New insights into the utilization of nanotechnology-based drugs
Novel drugs, such as vaccines against covid-19, among others, are based on drug transport using nanoparticles. Whether this drug transport is negatively influenced by an accumulation of blood proteins on the nanoparticle’s surface was [...]
The costly lesson from COVID: why elimination should be the default global strategy for future pandemics
Imagine it is 2030. Doctors in a regional hospital in country X note an expanding cluster of individuals with severe respiratory disease. Rapid whole-genome sequencing identifies the disease-causing agent as a novel coronavirus. Epidemiological [...]
How Artificial Intelligence Found the Words To Kill Cancer Cells
A predictive model has been developed that enables researchers to encode instructions for cells to execute. Scientists at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and IBM Research have created a virtual library of thousands of “command sentences” [...]
Next-generation, light-activated nanotech for antibiotic-resistant superbugs
It's "lights out" for antibiotic-resistant superbugs as next-generation light-activated nanotech proves it can eradicate some of the most notorious and potentially deadly bacteria in the world. Developed by the University of South Australia and [...]