In First Successful Human Trial, Nanotech Robots Deploy Cancer-Fighting RNA

 "Specially constructed molecules could potentially block the expression of genes critical to the reproduction of viruses and the spread of cancer. But until now, doctors had been unable to direct those molecules to the right cellular nuclei. Scientists from the California Institute of Technology solved this problem by placing the RNA molecules in a specialized polymer robot with a chemical sensor. When the environment of a cancerous cell triggered the chemical sensor, the robot releases the RNA."  Science

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Is this really as good as it looks?  pl 

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2010-03/nanotech-robots-deploy-cancer-fighting-rna

Comments

[Maureen Lang]

This looks extremely promising, Pat, thanks for posting about it. I'm always hesitant to toss around the term "breakthrough," but the Caltech research team's efforts here appear to indeed warrant it. A bit more on the paper the team just published in Nature's online edition:

Caltech-led Team Provides Proof in Humans of RNA Interference Using Targeted Nanoparticles
Pasadena, CA | Posted on March 23rd, 2010

"A California Institute of Technology (Caltech)-led team of researchers and clinicians has published the first proof that a targeted nanoparticle—used as an experimental therapeutic and injected directly into a patient's bloodstream—can traffic into tumors, deliver double-stranded small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), and turn off an important cancer gene using a mechanism known as RNA interference (RNAi). Moreover, the team provided the first demonstration that this new type of therapy, infused into the bloodstream, can make its way to human tumors in a dose-dependent fashion—i.e., a higher number of nanoparticles sent into the body leads to a higher number of nanoparticles in the tumor cells..."
http://www.nanotech-now.com/news.cgi?story_id=37367

[rjj]

as a general rule nothing is ever as good as it looks - specially when it looks really really promising.

the solution to one problem almost always causes a different one - sometimes more serious.

how does the body react to the nanoparticles?