Nanoships Might Deliver Anti-Cancer Drugs

U.S. scientists say they’ve developed nanometer-sized “cargo ships” that can sail throughout the body via the bloodstream, delivering anti-cancer drugs.

The researchers said such nanoships can escape immediate detection by the body’s immune system, delivering anti-cancer drugs and markers into tumors that might otherwise go untreated or undetected.

Scientists at the University of California-San Diego and the University of California-Santa Barbara, along with collaborators at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said their nanoship system integrates therapeutic and diagnostic functions into a single device.

“The idea involves encapsulating imaging agents and drugs into a protective ‘mother ship’ that evades the natural processes that normally would remove these payloads if they were unprotected,” said University of California-San Diego Professor Michael Sailor, who led the study. “These mother ships are only 50 nanometers in diameter Â… and are equipped with an array of molecules on their surfaces that enable them to find and penetrate tumor cells in the body.”

Sailor said such microscopic nanoships might more effectively deliver toxic anti-cancer drugs to tumors in high concentrations without negatively impacting other parts of the body.

The research is to appear in a forthcoming issue of the journal Angewandte Chemie.