Chemotherapy benefits a great many patients but
When a patient is injected with an anti-cancer drug, the idea is that the molecules will seek out and destroy rogue tumour cells. However, relatively large amounts need to be administered to reach the target in high enough concentrations to be effective. As a result of this high drug concentration, healthy cells may be killed as well as cancer cells, leaving many patients weak, nauseated and vulnerable to infection.
One way that researchers are attempting to improve the safety and efficacy of drugs is to use a relatively new area of research known as nanothrapeutics to target drug delivery just to the cells that need it.
Professor Sir Mark Welland is Head of the Electrical Engineering Division at Cambridge. In recent years, his research has focused on nanotherapeutics, working in collaboration with clinicians and industry to develop better, safer drugs. He and his colleagues don't design new drugs; instead, they design and build smart packaging for existing drugs.
Nanotherapeutics come in many different configurations, but the easiest way to think about them is as small, benign particles filled with a drug. They can be injected in the same way as a normal drug, and are carried through the bloodstream to the target organ, tissue or cell. At this point, a change in the local environment, such as pH, or the use of light or ultrasound, causes the nanoparticles to release their cargo.
Nano-sized tools are increasingly being looked at for diagnosis, drug delivery and therapy. "There are a huge number of possibilities right now, and probably more to come, which is why there's been so much interest," says Welland. Using clever chemistry and engineering at the nanoscale, drugs can be 'taught' to behave like a Trojan horse, or to hold their fire until just the right moment, or to recognise the target they're looking for.
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