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First Anti-Cancer Nanoparticle Trial On Humans a Success

Posted by samzenpus on from the smallest-medicine dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Nanoparticles have been able to disable cancerous cells in living human bodies for the first time. The results are perfect so far, killing tumors with no side effects whatsoever. Mark Davis, project leader at CalTech, says that 'it sneaks in, evades the immune system, delivers the siRNA, and the disassembled components exit out.' Truly amazing."

1 of 260 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Not just cancer! by wizardforce · · Score: 4, Interesting

    RNAi is an ancient anti-viral defense mechanism found in everything from plants to humans. That said, I agree. Any disease that is caused by the production of a given protein could in principle be treated using a derivative of this RNAi nanoparticle technology.
     

    Now we just need to figure out how to change people's DNA on the fly

    Viruses come close to this, it is just a matter of expanding what they can do (eg. enlarging their payload) and reducing the incidence of side effects like severe immune reactions.

    --
    Sigs are too short to say anything truly profound so read the above post instead.