Chemists Use Light to Signal Drug Release

Virginia scientists believe they can use specific wavelengths of light to signal manmade molecules to release drugs when they reach disease sites in the body.

The light is in the red band, a set of wavelengths that are not normally absorbed or reflected away by cells.

Researchers at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg designed molecules that can hold drugs until they are delivered to sites of disease in the body. Once the molecules are in place, they are signaled using the light. The drugs then cleave the DNA in the target cell, for example a tumor cell.

The challenge has been that tissue blocks light so we can’t signal molecules deep within the body to deliver drug therapy, says Karen Brewer, associate professor of chemistry and one of the paper’s authors.

The work was presented in a poster session Sunday at the national meeting of the American Chemical Society in San Diego.