Diamond drug delivery

Northwestern University researchers have shown that nanodiamonds - with a similar carbon structure to that of a sparkling 14 karat diamond but on a much smaller scale - are very effective at delivering chemotherapy drugs to cells without the negative effects associated with current drug delivery agents.

Aggregated clusters of the nanodiamonds can carry a chemotherapy drug and shield it from normal cells so as not to kill them, releasing the drug slowly only after it reached its cellular target.

Another advantage of the nanodiamonds, confirmed by a series of genetic studies, is that they do not cause cell inflammation once the drug has been released and only bare diamonds are left. Materials currently used for drug delivery can cause inflammation, a serious complication that can predispose a patient to cancer, block the activity of cancer drugs and even promote tumour growth.

'There are a lot of materials that can deliver drugs well, but we need to look at what happens after drug delivery,' said Dean Ho, assistant Prof of biomedical engineering and mechanical engineering at Northwestern's McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science.