Killing cancer with nanorobots

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Killing cancer with nanorobots

The ultimate goal of any cancer therapy is to destroy cancer cells without harming healthy ones. The thing is, very few antigens are completely tumor-specific, leading to on-target/off-tumor toxicity, where the treatment has negative effects on normal tissues as well as the tumor. For example, the ominously named death receptor 5 (DR5) can be used to drive cell death, but the ligands for these receptors will interact with both cancer and healthy cells.

On the other hand, there are a few factors that can differentiate healthy and unhealthy tissues: for example, cells of solid tumors consume excessive amounts of oxygen and other nutrients, leading to increased acidity in the tumor itself.

In this paper, the authors created a DNA origami nanorobot that targets and kills cancer cells by exploiting the acidic environment found in tumors. This tiny robot keeps six DR5 ligands hidden inside its structure, but when it encounters the high acidity of a tumor, it reveals these ligands, killing the cancer cells. They demonstrated this in mice with human breast cancer xenografts and showed that the nanobot could reduce tumor growth by up to 70%!

This paper is exciting because it tackles one of the biggest challenges in cancer treatment: reducing side effects when targeting solid tumor antigens. The authors showed that an autonomous nanorobot could boost the effectiveness of cancer treatments while cutting down on side effects and opening doors for new therapies.

However, there are still obstacles to using DNA origami for drug delivery. One major issue is cost: even though DNA origami synthesis is getting cheaper, developing a successful structure still requires many tests, driving up research and development expenses. Additionally, there is ongoing concern about the stability of DNA origami in the body, though stabilization techniques are quickly improving.

However, it's exciting to see nanorobots capable of selectively targeting and killing cancer cells!

Read the full article at Nature Nanotech.

In other news:

• Fine-tuning Cre/LoxP: Scientists enhanced Cre/loxP recombination specificity by modifying Cre/DNA interactions. Screening 6000 sequences, they found 84% showed efficient recombination. Directed evolution created Cre variants with optimized properties, highlighting potential for genome engineering for therapeutic applications. Read the whole paper here.

• More on tumour targeting: if you want to continue to learn about targeting tumor with nanomedicine, just head here. In this review, the author explores the key principles, latest advancements, and breakthroughs in nanomedicine for tumor targeting. The author highlights current challenges and issues while discussing the most promising future prospects for making a significant clinical impact.

• Hammer out your DNA origami: Researchers in Helsinki introduce DNAforge. DNAforge is an online tool offering a user-friendly interface for designing DNA and RNA wireframe nanostructures. DNAforge simplifies the design, visualization, and sequence generation of complex nanostructures through an automated process. Read everything about it here!

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