5 replies to this topic

[wannabe]

I decided the best introduction to a nanomedicine thread would be to refresh on the ATP mechanism. Since our cells have their own repair mechanisms, nanomedicine should target degeneration of mitochondrial function, to restore energy to the repair systems. Will it be little crawling nano-bots? Will it be vectoring in augmented mitochondria by designer virus? Something else?

Breakthroughs in understanding how our mitochondria make the energy currency, ATP, that allows cells to function, at the Nobel e-Museum (technical)
http://www.nobel.se/...1997/press.html

Multimedia presentation on cellular respiration for students at this link below --more accessable.

http://www.tayloru.e.../mysteries.html

The issues of mitochondrial disfunction and aging are put in lay terms here -- http://www.seniormag...tochondrial.htm

[Lazarus Long]

Good choice. Thanks Wannabe.

I think if you don't find it first thereis also research into current work with artificial Hemoglobin, skin, rebuilding the pancreatic and liver functions that is already underway. I will try and lok for some of that too. I also think that we will see various artificial systems and smartbodies to augment the imune system sooner than many believe possible.

[wannabe]

Along with an understanding of the mitochondria, this surprising reference on DNA should have meaning for nanomedicine. The idea that they could cap a DNA strand with a metal was interesting in itself [!]

reference found at http://monatomic.ear...abase/research/

Scientific American
May 1995
David Paterson
Reference: pp. 33-34

The researchers examined the electrical properties of short lengths of double-helix DNA in which there was a ruthenium atom at each end of one of the strands. Meade and Kayyem estimated from earlier studies that a short single strand of DNA ought to conduct up to 100 electrons a second. Imagine their astonishment when they measured the rate of flow along the ruthenium-doped double helix: the current was up by a factor of more than 10,000 times-over a million electrons a second. It was as if the double helix was behaving like a piece of molecular wire.

For some time, chemists have suspected that the double helix might create a highly conductive path along the axis of the molecule, a route that does not exist in the single strand. Here was confirmation of this idea.
*****

[Lazarus Long]

http://www.nature.co...abs/nbt843.html
Published online: 29 June 2003, doi:10.1038/nbt843
August 2003 Volume 21 Number 8 pp 885 - 890

Nanoparticles for the delivery of genes and drugs to human hepatocytes

Tadanori Yamada1, 2, Yasushi Iwasaki3, Hiroko Tada4, Hidehiko Iwabuki1, 5, Marinee KL Chuah6, Thierry VandenDriessche6, Hideki Fukuda2, Akihiko Kondo7, Masakazu Ueda3, 8, Masaharu Seno4, Katsuyuki Tanizawa1 & Shun'ichi Kuroda1

1. Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research, Osaka University, 8-1 Mihogaoka, Ibaraki, Osaka 567-0047, Japan.
2. Graduate School of Science and Technology, Kobe University, 1-1 Rokkodai, Nada, Kobe, Hyogo 657-8501, Japan.
3. Keio University, School of Medicine, 35 Shinanomachi, Shinjuku, Tokyo 160-8582, Japan.
4. Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology, Okayama University, 3-1-1 Tsushimanaka, Okayama 700-8530, Japan.
5. Japan Science and Technology Corporation (JST), 5-3 Yonbancho, Chiyoda, Tokyo 102-8666, Japan.
6. Center for Transgene Technology and Gene Therapy, Flanders Interuniversity Institute for Biotechnology–University of Leuven, 49 Herestraat, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium.
7. Faculty of Engineering, Kobe University, 1-1 Rokkodai, Nada, Kobe, Hyogo 657-8501, Japan.
8. Beacle Inc., 2-10-13 Kadota-Bunka, Okayama, Okayama 703-8273, Japan.
Correspondence should be addressed to S Kuroda. e-mail: skuroda@sanken.osaka-u.ac.jp


Hepatitis B virus envelope L particles form hollow nanoparticles displaying a peptide that is indispensable for liver-specific infection by hepatitis B virus in humans. Here we demonstrate the use of L particles for the efficient and specific transfer of a gene or drug into human hepatocytes both in culture and in a mouse xenograft model. In this model, intravenous injection of L particles carrying the gene for green fluorescent protein (GFP) or a fluorescent dye resulted in observable fluorescence only in human hepatocellular carcinomas but not in other human carcinomas or in mouse tissues. When the gene encoding human clotting factor IX was transferred into the xenograft model using L particles, factor IX was produced at levels relevant to the treatment of hemophilia B. The yeast-derived L particle is free of viral genomes, highly specific to human liver cells and able to accommodate drugs as well as genes. These advantages should facilitate targeted delivery of genes and drugs to the human liver.

[Mind]

More study into how the shape and size of nanoparticles affect there potential use as medicines.

Previous studies have shown that drug-carrying nanoparticles can hone-in on and attack tumors, in part because of their extremely small size — less than 100 nanometers (one nanometer = one billionth of a meter) — which helps allow them to pass through cell membranes. However, up until now, existing techniques have meant that targeting agents could only be delivered using spherical or granular shaped particles.

Using PRINT® (Particle Replication in Non-wetting Templates) technology — a technique invented in DeSimone's lab that allows scientists to design and produce "custom-made" nanoparticles — the UNC researchers made particles with specific shapes, sizes and surface charges. DeSimone said the aim is to optimize particle attributes for specific therapeutic objectives.

"This would mean that we could deliver lower dosages of drugs to specific cells and tissues in the body and actually be more effective in treating the cancer," said DeSimone, who is also a member of UNC's Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and the co-principal investigator for the Carolina Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence.

Creating particles of different dimensions, the UNC researchers changed one variable at a time, and experimented with different surface chemistries. They then incubated the different particles with human cervical carcinoma epithelial (HeLa) cells, monitoring each type to see which ones the cells absorbed most effectively.

For instance, the scientists discovered that long, rod-shaped particles (diameter, 150 nanometers; height, 450 nanometers) were internalized by cells approximately four times faster than lower aspect ratio particles (diameter, 200 nanometers; height, 200 nanometers), and traveled significantly further into the cells as well.

[niner]

More study into how the shape and size of nanoparticles affect there potential use as medicines.

This is freakin' brilliant! This is an example of why the future has a positive bias. Things get better.