Nanoparticles catch cancer in pincer movement

The technique was developed by researchers at North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

‘In testing on laboratory mice, our technique resulted in significant improvement in breast cancer tumour reduction as compared to conventional treatment techniques,’ said Dr Zhen Gu, senior author of a paper on the research and an assistant professor in the joint biomedical engineering program at NC State and UNC-Chapel Hill.

‘Cancer cells can develop resistance to chemotherapy drugs, but are less likely to develop resistance when multiple drugs are delivered simultaneously,’ Gu said in a statement. ‘However, different drugs target different parts of the cancer cell. For example, the protein drug TRAIL is most effective against the cell membrane, while doxorubicin (Dox) is most effective when delivered to the nucleus. We’ve come up with a sequential and site-specific delivery technique that first delivers TRAIL to cancer cell membranes and then penetrates the membrane to deliver Dox to the nucleus.’