Nano particles to transport RNA in tumor cells and deactivate the gene RRM2 for RNA interference.
Developing ideas of genetic engineering that won him four years ago, the Nobel for their creators, researchers at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, for the first time tested technique of inhibition of protein production that promises to revolutionize medicine therapy. Starting from cancer, an objective in the work of Mark Davis and colleagues (published in Nature) has been successfully attacked by nanoparticles no larger than 70 nanometers.
The nanobots in question have been introduced into the body of 15 patients suffering from melanoma (skin cancer), with the specific purpose of carrying fragments of RNA in the nuclei of tumor cells through the technique known as RNA interference. Designed by Americans Andrew Fire and Craig C. Mello (also winners of the Nobel Prize in medicine in 2006), the technique is able to interfere and stop a particular functional element of the genetic code allowing you to modify the functioning of cells.
There have been many attempts to apply the RNA interference treatment of human disease, and nanobots developed by the team of Mark Davis are the first important success in this regard. The nano-particles are composed of two polymers in addition to a protein that allows them to bind to receptors on cancerous cells regressed to the state.
The success of the test is measured in the fact that nanoparticles have been administered to patients and have traveled the circulatory system to reach – as verified by a subsequent biopsy – cancer cells, penetrate into the nucleus and turn off protein production by the RRM2 gene (a key element of cancer cell multiplication). “They have introduced, have evaded the immune system, issued the RNA and the components are disassembled out,” said Davis.
The nanobots have a short, clean work, which has so far recorded specific contraindications to the health of patients: and, equally important, most have been introduced into the body, the greater was their presence within the tumor.
The scientific community looks forward to search for Pasadena, but warns that much remains to be done and must be assessed in more detail (and a larger number of patients) the overall effects of the use of anti-cancer nanoparticles. Pending further validation future, at any rate, the molecular biologist at Rockefeller University in New York, Thomas Tuschl, describes as “exciting” that “these nanoparticles in multiple dosing schedules can get the fabric and apparently have a measurable effect.”
