Slashdot Mirror
Mimicking Vesicle Fusion To Make Gold Nanoparticles Easily Penetrate Cells
rtoz (2530056) writes A special class of tiny gold particles can easily slip through cell membranes, making them good candidates to deliver drugs directly to target cells. A new study from MIT materials scientists reveals that these nanoparticles enter cells by taking advantage of a route normally used in vesicle-vesicle fusion, a crucial process that allows signal transmission between neurons. MIT engineers created simulations of how a gold nanoparticle coated with special molecules can penetrate a membrane.
Paper (abstract; full text paywalled).
As folks who've experimented with the anti-biotic and anti-viral effects of silver can attest, its important that we do indeed start with nano-particles. Bigger particles tend to have a plating effect and tattoo under the skin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
If it acquires resources on instantiation like a duck, then its a shared_ptr<Duck>
Except that the stripy particles used here are not real. Stellacci has been claiming to make these, but there are big doubts over the evidence:
http://www.timeshighereducatio...
Every experiment which ends in a big bang is a good experiment.
First it looked like Vehicle Fusion, then Testicle Fusion.
I guess I just don't read Nature Communications much, but does anybody else have any experience with this Readcube bullshit? My university just cancelled their Nature Group subscription and replaced it with this... Adobe Flash dependent "rental" of academic papers.
...sore, that is!
when they get more energy out than they put in
some gold jokes:
Hello, Ginger! Her brother called cheerily to his sister.
Dont call me Ginger! she snapped furiously. My hair is the color of gold.
Yeah, he replied with a jeer, twenty-four carrots!
An elderly woman decided to have her portrait painted. She told the artist Paint me with diamond earrings, a diamond and gold necklace, emerald and gold bracelets, a ruby broach, and gold Rolex." "But you are not wearing any of those things" replied the artist.
"I know," she said. "It's in case I should die before my husband. I'm sure he will remarry right away, and I want his new wife to go crazy looking for the jewelry."
Bill: Where did you get that gold watch Joe?
Joe: I won it in a race.
Bill: How many people participated in it?
Joe: Three, a policeman, the owner of the watch, and me!!
Mimicking Vesicle Fusion To Make Gold Nanoparticles Easily Penetrate Cells
I've no idea what that means but I feel dirty after reading it.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Why is this on Slashdot (I can understand why it would be on MIT News when some of the researchers are from MIT)? I work in the field and would describe what was done in the paper as routine and in no way groundbraking. It does present a new insight into the matter of gold particle intake and relate this to the model vesicle fusion mechanism, which is nice (although of not so much relevance in biology, as the fusion there is usually an active process driven by SNARE proteins and such; similarly nanoparticle intake does not in vivo happen merely through passive diffusion). I am in no way calling the work bad or undeserving, I simply am surprised as to why it would be reported in the mainstream media (if /. can be counted as such), as they did not showcase any working applications or anything that might be interesting even from a technological point of view (the simulations done here are not unprecedented in scale requiring huge computers; sure you need a cluster, but nothing even from TOP500).
Gold pressed latinum, one step closer.
It's been done already. Open access.
That is, non-toxic transfection and organelle targeting of a combination "marker & delivery vehicle" into live cells, confirmed by both optical and electron imaging. Special nanodiamonds in this case.
(Full disclosure: It was me.)