June 29, 2011
BYPASSING DEFENSES WITH A RED-BLOODED DRUG DELIVERY DEVICE:
Liangfang Zhang and colleagues filled the red blood cell membrane with a cocktail of anti-cancer drugs. According to the researchers, the device stayed inside the bodies of lab mice for nearly 72 hours.
It’s the first time that scientists have combined a natural cell membrane with a synthetic nanoparticle for drug-delivery applications, Zhang said in a statement. “Such a nanoparticle platform will have little risk of immune response,” he said.
Next, they’ll add a targeting molecule so it can seek out and destroy only certain kinds of cancer cells.