Chemists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a nanoparticle in the form of a cleaning brush.
When creating their particles, chemists inactivatedrug molecules by linking them to the building blocks of the polymer and mixing them in a predetermined ratio. The polymerization process creates chains of monomers that extend from the central axis, like brushes on a dishwashing brush. Using this method, it is possible to create polymer nanomolecules that contain both some individual and many different drugs.
Treatment of cancer with drug combinations is usuallyshows better results than single-drug therapy, chemists say. The traditional difficulty of therapy with several components is to deliver all the "ingredients" to the cells in the right proportions at the same time.
Chemists at MIT believe that nanomolecules withprodrugs solve this problem. Such a delivery system remains stable until the linker, the linking group holding the polymer, is destroyed. Destruction of the rod releases and activates all drug components.
In experiments on mice, chemists have shown thatnanoparticles carrying three drugs in a precisely calculated proportion reduced myeloma much more than when the three drugs were given in the same ratio but not bound to the particle. The same approach can be used to treat other types of cancer.
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On the cover: an artistic illustration of a nanomolecule. Image: Alexandre Detappe et al., Nature Nanotechnology, MIT News