Nanoparticles – Workhorses That Bring Tremendous Benefit

Tiny particles found in clothing, cosmetics, food, electronics or furniture enter our bodies and behave in unexpected (sometimes unwanted) ways. However, in the realm of medicine another type of particle called the nanoparticle can bring untold potential. We can load them with drugs, for example, and deliver them precisely to a diseased organ or cell. Mark Davis from the California Institute of Technology has created nanoparticles that deliver siRNA specifically into melanomas. Davis and his colleagues have not shied away from making bold claims about the therapeutic potential of their work.  They write:

“When taken together, the data presented here provide the first, to our knowledge, mechanistic evidence of RNAi in a human from an administered siRNA. Moreover, these data demonstrate the first example of dose-dependent accumulation of targeted nanoparticles in human tumours. ….These data demonstrate that RNAi can occur in a human from a systemically delivered siRNA, and that siRNA can be used as a gene-specific therapeutic.” Davis et al. 2010. Continue reading “Nanoparticles – Workhorses That Bring Tremendous Benefit”