drug delivery

Researchers Create Flexible, Nanoscale ‘Bed of Nails’ for Possible Drug Delivery
01/16/2013 - 11:06

Researchers at North Carolina State University have come up with a technique to embed needle-like carbon nanofibers in an elastic membrane, creating a flexible “bed of nails” on the nanoscale that opens the door to development of new drug-delivery systems.

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Under-twisted DNA origami delivers cancer drugs to tumors
09/13/2012 - 11:48

Scientists at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden describe in a new study how so-called DNA origami can enhance the effect of certain cytostatics used in the treatment of cancer. With the aid of modern nanotechnology, scientists can target drugs direct to the tumour while leaving surrounding healthy tissue untouched.

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Improved nanoparticles deliver drugs into brain
09/11/2012 - 16:51

The brain is a notoriously difficult organ to treat, but Johns Hopkins researchers report they are one step closer to having a drug-delivery system flexible enough to overcome some key challenges posed by brain cancer and perhaps other maladies affecting that organ.

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Engineers Convert a Natural Plant Protein Into Drug-delivery Vehicles
07/02/2012 - 17:02

Finding biocompatible carriers that can get drugs to their targets in the body involves significant challenges.  Beyond practical concerns of manufacturing and loading these vehicles, the carriers must work effectively with the drug and be safe to consume. Vesicles, hollow capsules shaped like double-walled bubbles, are ideal candidates, as the body naturally produces similar structures to move chemicals from one place to another. Finding the right molecules to assemble into capsules, however, remains difficult.

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Calcium carbonate templates for drug delivery
07/02/2012 - 11:56

The fast and targeted delivery of drugs to the focus of a disease could soon be made easier. Helmuth Möhwald and his colleagues from the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Golm, Potsdam, have developed a simple technique for the production of drug containers which can be channelled to a selected target in the body. The researchers use porous calcium carbonate microspheres as templates for the production of hollow three-dimensional balls. These can absorb medically effective substances and allow signalling molecules to be attached to their surface, with the help of which the spheres can then find their way to the diseased tissue.

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A step toward minute factories that produce medicine inside the body
06/27/2012 - 10:46

Scientists are reporting an advance toward treating disease with minute capsules containing not drugs — but the DNA and other biological machinery for making the drug. In an article in ACS' journal Nano Letters, they describe engineering micro- and nano-sized capsules that contain the genetically coded instructions, plus the read-out gear and assembly line for protein synthesis that can be switched on with an external signal.

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