Anti-Cancer Tinker Toys
13th Nov 2006, 23:50 GMT
Cancer research has taken a couple of major steps forward recently.Cancer cells need to be located, scanned, and killed. By putting several different functions into a single large molecule, part of the molecule can attach to the cancer cell; another part can show up on an MRI or other scan; and a third part of the molecule can kill the cancer. Anti-cancer drugs are highly toxic, but if they can be attached to the cancer cells rather than floating around the body, they can be far more effective.Unfortunately, it's hard to make molecules consisting of lots of components. Each step takes a long time and reduces the useful yield. But now there's a new technology: molecular "Tinker Toys" using single-function molecules with DNA tags that allow them to be combined quickly and easily into multi-function cancer-killers. This will save researchers a lot of time, and allow testing more combinations more quickly.As an example of what might be done with this approach, researchers have created a similar structure--a "bow tie dendrimer"--with one half carrying chemicals that bind to cancer cells and the other half carrying drugs that kill them. A single dose cured colon cancer in mice--all of them survived 60 days with complete tumor regression. By contrast, mice treated with the same cancer-killer drug in non-dendrimer formulations survived far less well.This research is so cool that I'm tempted to close this post here. But I'll briefly point out that Tinker Toy technologies are enabling technologies for building molecular structures, and eventually machines. Thus, they form one of many enabling technologies for molecular manufacturing.Chris Phoenix Tags: nanotechnologynanotechnanosciencetechnologyethicsweblogblog
Anti-Cancer Tinker Toys related news:
- Patients Respond Well To First Study To Test Higher Doses Of An Anti-Cancer Drug — Health News from Medical News Today
- Patients Respond Well To Higher Doses Of An Anti-cancer Drug - Limited Side Effects And Evidence Of Clinical Activity — Health News from Medical News Today
- Anti-cancer drug shows early promise in pulmonary hypertension — EurekAlert! - Breaking News
- **FILE PHOTO** Lance Cpl. Rasheed Baloquin passes boxes of toys ... — U.S. Military on Yahoo! News Photos
- Bigger Toys for Bigger Girls and Boys — TheCelebrityCafe.com: Product Reviews
- U-M researchers use nanoparticles to target brain cancer — EurekAlert! - Cancer
- Marines begin Toys for Tots drive — PittsburghLIVE.com
- Risk after colon cancer higher for the very fat and very thin — EurekAlert! - Breaking News
- Video Podcast: Thomas the Tank Engine — ABC7 Chicago - 190 North
- Lung cancer top killer among malignant tumors in Beijing — KeralaNext: China