Nanosurgeons will operate on the tumor
The DNA fragment was connected to a magnet
STRF.ruThe resulting system will be used to fight tumors.
The movement of magnetic nanoparticles can be controlled using a field, and a specially synthesized DNA fragment, an aptamer, is designed for specific binding to a target cell. The development of Japanese scientists has so far been tested only on cell culture, but after a while, researchers will begin animal testing, Informnauka reports.
The most well–known molecules capable of binding to the desired target are, of course, antibodies and other proteins. However, it is expensive to obtain them, and it is problematic to use them in a living organism due to the formation of an immune response. Therefore, recently many researchers have paid attention to aptamers – short artificially created fragments of DNA or RNA that are also capable of interacting with a target – for example, with a cellular receptor. In nature, nucleic acids, of course, are not able to interact with anything (only with a small number of proteins involved in their own regulation), but the current level of development of biotechnology allows you to select a sequence of nucleotides that binds to the desired substance.
Scientists from the Bionanoelectronics Research Center of Toyo University have created a single-stranded DNA aptamer GB-10. This molecule is able to bind to a receptor on the surface of glioma cells (brain tumors). Aptamers were attached to superparamagnetic particles with a diameter of about 250 nm.
The first test of the new system is described in the journal Nanotechnology (Baiju G Nair et al., Aptamer conjugated magnetic nanoparticles as nanosurgeons). Scientists placed a cell culture on a horizontal plane and surrounded it with three pairs of solenoids, which made it possible to control the magnetic field in three-dimensional space. Nanoparticles attracted by the magnetic field moved to the desired zone of the model tumor, and thanks to the aptamer, the particles bound to those cells on the surface of which a glioma-specific receptor was present. Then the direction of the magnetic field changed and the nanoparticles were removed from the cell culture – along with the diseased cells attached to them.
Scientists have called the system they developed a "nanosurgeon" because it can be used to perform high-precision surgical operations.
Studies of cell culture have shown that the cells remaining in it remain viable, but the cells with which the "nanosurgeon" interacted die (even if for some reason they could not be extracted from this tissue). The selection of specific aptamers will allow selectively destroying any kind of target cells. This system can be used to treat cancer and other diseases, to combat which it is necessary to suppress the activity of cells of any type. It is assumed that "nanosurgeons" will be able to penetrate into remote, hard-to-reach areas of the body and partially replace invasive methods of treatment.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru20.12.2010