Cells gobble up micro-doughnuts
Conventional doughnuts may not be particularly good for our health but newly developed, tiny ring ‘doughnuts’ may be able to deliver drugs selectively, eliminating side effects of treatments like chemotherapy.
Conventional doughnuts may not be particularly good for our health but newly developed, tiny ring ‘doughnuts’ may be able to deliver drugs selectively, eliminating side effects of treatments like chemotherapy.
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| Micro-doughnuts were discovered accidentally but could prove to be a drug-delivery express to the liver |
“Their unique and highly uniform structure was immediately interesting to us and we considered the possible applications they may have – one of which was as carrier particles for cellular deliver,” said Bradley.
Extensive in vivo testing in rats has confirmed the micro-doughnut behaviour – four hours after the injection into the tail of the rats, the micro-doughnuts were found exclusively in the liver region without any observable side-effects.
Although the team are eager to develop micro-doughnuts for effective and selective drug delivery they also recognise that they may have other applications in filtration or purification devices.
By Leila Sattary
