Scientists Design a Nanoscale Vault to Hold Drug Nanodisks for Delivery to Cells
Scientists at UCLA have engineered a new way to make therapeutic drug delivery more specific. They have come up with a way to use nanoscale vaults to deliver nanodisks infused with drugs that have toxic side effects to ensure that only the target cells receive the medicine. Vault nanoparticles are barrel shaped ribonucleoprotein complexes found in the cytoplasm with large hollow spaces in the middle. They are some of the largest nanoparticles found in cells. Scientists have modified these proteins so that they can insert the nanodisks, and the vaults will slowly release the medicine through small openings in the complex. This mechanism works similar to a strainer. Because these nanoparticle vaults are found naturally in the body, they are nonimmunogenic. They have also been engineered to interact only with receptors on specific target cells, so the drug delivery can be very local. The researchers want to be able to package multiple disks within a single vault, so they can have more control over drug concentration. Right now they have engineered a nanoparticle vault for the highly toxic drug all-trans retnoic acid using lipoproteins to form a lipid bilayer nanodisk.
This has the potential to make drug treatments much more effective. Not only will drugs be much more concentrated at the site needed, but it will shield other organs from potentially toxic side effects. This could allow patients to stay on a drug longer without risk of major side effects. This is the aspect of the discovery that most interested me. I always hear long lists of side effects when medicines are advertised on TV, but to be able to increase effectiveness while limiting the body's exposure to the target tissue will help make some of those side effects less prominent. This will have many live saving effects if the technology is fully developed.
Tyler Terrill
posted by Tyler Terrill at 8:10 PM
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