Micrographs
of shapes of Nanoparticles (a) Spheres. (b) Rectangular disks. (c)
Rods. (d) Worms. (e) Oblate ellipses. (f) Elliptical disks. (g) UFOs.
(h) Circular disks. (Scale bars: 2 μm.).
Nanoparticle
research is currently an area of intense scientific research, due to a
wide variety of potential applications in biomedical, optical, and
electronic fields. For the first time, researchers have found that
nanoparticles shaped like rods and worms are far more effective at
travelling through cells and specific barriers like the nucleus than
spherical ones. The team applied a new fluorescent microscopy method to
standard drug delivery, which allowed them to track the movement of
nanoparticles of different shapes through a single cancer cell. When the
researchers used doxorubicin (a cancer drug) in the different shaped
nanoparticles, the rod and worms passively entered the nucleus without
any issues. The spherical ones, on the other hand, were stuck outside
the nucleus. Getting through the nuclear membrane and into the nucleus
is important for increasing the toxicity of cancer cells, so rods and
worms came out on top. Now, it can help to reduce some side effects of
chemotherapies and it gives the ability to look inside the cell, see
what the particles are doing, and design them to do exactly what we want
them to do.
Ref:
Elizabeth Hinde et al, 2016. Pair correlation microscopy reveals the
role of nanoparticle shape in intracellular transport and site of drug
release. Nature Nanotechnology.
Doi: 10.1038/nnano.2016.160
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