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Robots one-thousandth the
width of a human hair are now able to fight cancer by destroying tumours in the
body
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Robots one-thousandth the width of a human hair
are now able to fight cancer by destroying tumours in the body. Scientists have built nano-robots from DNA sheets
shaped into tubes and injected into the bloodstream. The tubes carry a blood-clotting enzyme,
thrombin, and are painted with proteins which home in on a separate protein
found only in tumour cells.
When the robots reach their target and bind to
its surface they spring open and deliver the enzyme which clots the blood
supply to the tumour and causes it to have a mini heart attack and die. The
nanorobots work fast, congregating in large numbers to surround a tumour just
hours after injection.
They were found to be safe in tests on mice and
pigs, with no evidence of spreading to the brain where they could cause a
stroke. The treatment blocked tumour blood supply and generated tumour tissue
damage within 24 hours, while having no effect on healthy tissue.
Three out of eight mice with skin cancer saw
their tumours shrink, with their survival time from cancer more than doubling
on average from 20.5 to 45 days.
The research comes after a team of scientists,
involving Durham University, last year created nanorobots able to drill into
and destroy cancer cells.
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Scientists have built
nano-robots from DNA sheets shaped into tubes and injected into the bloodstream
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Nanorobots are so-called because of their tiny
size and because they contain parts capable of movement within the body. In
this case, the mechanical action is the springing open of the DNA sheet to
reveal the blood-clotting drug.
Baroness Delyth Morgan, chief executive of Breast
Cancer Now, said: 'The development of nanorobots that can deliver drugs to a
specific target within a tumour is an exciting glimpse into the future of
cancer medicine.
'This is the first time that DNA molecules have
been manipulated to deliver drugs in this way – a fascinating advance that, if
refined and proven effective in humans, could have far-reaching implications
for treating cancer and other diseases.'
Professor Peter Dobson, from the University of
Oxford, said: 'It is a neat idea and there is a lot of evidence in the paper to
show that this is a promising approach.'
Professor Hao Yan, a co-author of the study from
Arizona State University, said: 'We have developed the first fully autonomous,
DNA robotic system for a very precise drug design and targeted cancer therapy. Moreover, this technology is a strategy that can
be used for many types of cancer, since all solid tumour-feeding blood vessels
are essentially the same.' Nanotechnology, which is smaller than most of us can
imagine, is seen as the way forward to tackle cancer through a simple
injection.
One sheet of newspaper is around 100,000
nanometres thick. The nanorobots used to fight cancer are made from sheets of
DNA measuring just 90 nanometres by 60.
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The tubes carry a
blood-clotting enzyme, thrombin (pictured), and are painted with proteins
which home in on a separate protein found only in tumour cells
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Dr James Tour of Rice University in the US, who
was involved in last year's breakthrough with Durham University, said the
'spring-loaded' nanorobot was 'exciting', adding: 'It is a nano-Trojan horse!'
The research, which was led by the National
Centre for Nanoscience and Technology in China, is published in the journal
Nature Biotechnology.
Originally published on DAILY MAIL UK WIRES
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