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Gold Nanoparticles Help Red Blood Cells Deliver Drugs

Posted by Unknown on from the nanosharks-with-lasers dept.

New submitter MTorrice writes "Scientists decorated red blood cells with gold nanoparticles so they could trigger the cells to dump their contents with a zap from a laser. The laser pulses heated the particles to produce nanopores in the cells' membranes. The cells contained two fluorescent dyes and both flooded through the pores and out of the cells after the laser pulses. Although the researchers studied the release of dyes, their end goal is to use red blood cells as a vehicle for drug delivery, because the cells are naturally compatible with the immune system and circulate for days in the body. Until now, researchers have found easy ways to load the cells with drugs, but the challenge has been to control the molecules' release."

11 of 36 comments (clear)

  1. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 4, Funny

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  2. Let me be the first to say, by ddd0004 · · Score: 2

    Thank you to the tireless researcher striving to make this a better world. Your efforts have been noted, Dr. Lil Jon. I knew that grill was for health reasons.

  3. This compliments the Southpark research. by dicobalt · · Score: 2

    They discovered if you inject cash directly into your bloodstream that you can cure AIDS.

  4. Deep Work? by icebike · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It seems to me this would be best used to get drugs delivered deep within the body, such as in a tumor, without dosing the rest of the body, or even near by areas.

    But how do they get the laser there? If it were near the surface, a laser could be used. But deeper in the body, liver, brain, etc., how do you get laser light in there to cause the drug bomb to be dropped?

    Quoting TFA:

    Mario Magnani, of the University of Urbino, in Italy, calls the method novel and interesting, especially because it appears to leave the red blood cells intact. However, he sees two practical problems: Infrared light doesn’t penetrate deeply into body tissue, making many tumors difficult to access with the technique’s laser.

    Wouldn't intersecting focused microwaves be a better approach for heating these blood cells than an infrared laser?

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    Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
    1. Re:Deep Work? by Frohboy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      But how do they get the laser there? If it were near the surface, a laser could be used. But deeper in the body, liver, brain, etc., how do you get laser light in there to cause the drug bomb to be dropped?

      It's been a while since I studied optical therapy (before dropping out a PhD program in medical biophysics), but I'm pretty sure I remember that you can use fiber-optics. I think it's relatively "easy" (and not too invasive) to poke the patient with a fine fiber-optic cable (guided by ultrasound, I suppose) that delivers the laser light at the target site. In theory, I suppose they might be able to leave the fiber-optics in the patient for a while to deliver treatment over a few days/weeks (like a sort of "optical catheter").

      Now, I only had about four weeks of classes on optical therapy 6 years ago (as part of a course that also covered thermal and radiation therapies), so I'm only barely more qualified to write on the subject than most anonymous internet jackasses. That said, I do have a clear memory of slides from class with patients with fiber-optic cables poking into their heads or other parts of their bodies, so I remember that it can be done.

  5. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 2

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  6. Re:Rich people by Weaselmancer · · Score: 4, Funny

    Another believer in trickle down economics, I see.

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    Weaselmancer
    rediculous.
  7. More fodder for the WOD by phrackthat · · Score: 3, Interesting

    their end goal is to use red blood cells as a vehicle for drug delivery

    Now they'll have probable cause if the K9's detect that you have red blood cells.

    - sarcasm off.

    In all seriousness, gold nano particles are being explored medically in some pretty freakin' cool ways - to kill cancer by heating the gold with light, kill cancer by heating the gold radio waves in places where light can't reach and targetted delivery of chemotherapy.

  8. What can go wrong? by Robert+Zenz · · Score: 2

    "Just sit and wait here, Mr. Bond, while I fiahrm...start the Therapy-Laser."

  9. South park was right by Internetuser1248 · · Score: 2

    "W have found a cure for aids! All you have to do is inject $100,000 directly into your bloodstream"

  10. Re:Why gold? by hsalstond · · Score: 2

    It's easier to make/process, use and analyze nanoparticles of gold than anything else, so it's the best characterized material. It's easiest to process and analyze because it's heavy and inert. And then for medical uses it's key that gold tends to remain nontoxic in any particle size/shape unlike most other nontoxic metals. Silver is not as good about being totally nontoxic in any formulation like gold, though interestingly sizing of silver nanoparticles show deposition in different tissues based on size (so the nanoparticles could do the targeting by virtue of their size/shape).