Advanced Nanoparticle System Kills Cancer Cells From Within

The latest cancer targeting nanoparticles being developed in labs around the world are getting ever more complex and are utilizing multiple mechanisms to find and strike their targets. Researchers at North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill just published an article in Nature Communications describing a nanoparticle that delivers its killer payload only when inside cells by homing in on ATP (adenosine triphosphate).

ATP is the famous energy molecule that powers the activity inside of cells, and the new nanoparticle carries DNA strands bound to doxorubicin, an anti-cancer drug, than unfold when high levels of ATP are present. The nanoparticles themselves have a layer of hyaluronic acid (HA) that attracts some types of cancer cells, allowing the nanoparticles to enter and open up, releasing the folded DNA strands.

From study abstract in Nature Communications:

The half-maximal inhibitory concentration of ATP-responsive nanovehicles is 0.24 μM in MDA-MB-231 cells,…