Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have developed nanorobots that kill cancer cells in mice. The robot's weapon is hidden in a nanostructure and is exposed only in the tumor microenvironment, sparing healthy cells.
The research group at Karolinska Institutet has previously developed structures that can organize so-called death receptors on the surface of cells, leading to cell death. The structures exhibit six peptides (amino acid chains) assembled in a hexagonal pattern.
"This hexagonal nanopattern of peptides becomes a lethal weapon," explains Professor Björn Högberg at the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Karolinska Institutet, who led the study.
"If you were to administer it as a drug, it would indiscriminately start killing cells in the body, which would not be good. To get around this problem, we have hidden the weapon inside a nanostructure built from DNA."
They then tested injecting the nanorobot into mice with breast cancer tumors. This resulted in a 70 percent reduction in tumor growth compared to mice given an inactive version of the nanorobot.
"We now need to investigate whether this works in more advanced cancer models that more closely resemble the real human disease," says the study's first author Yang Wang, a researcher at the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Karolinska Institutet. "We also need to find out what side effects the method has before it can be tested on humans."
The researchers also plan to investigate whether it is possible to make the nanorobot more targeted by placing proteins or peptides on its surface that specifically bind to certain types of cancer.
The research group at Karolinska Institutet has previously developed structures that can organize so-called death receptors on the surface of cells, leading to cell death. The structures exhibit six peptides (amino acid chains) assembled in a hexagonal pattern.
"This hexagonal nanopattern of peptides becomes a lethal weapon," explains Professor Björn Högberg at the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Karolinska Institutet, who led the study.
"If you were to administer it as a drug, it would indiscriminately start killing cells in the body, which would not be good. To get around this problem, we have hidden the weapon inside a nanostructure built from DNA."
They then tested injecting the nanorobot into mice with breast cancer tumors. This resulted in a 70 percent reduction in tumor growth compared to mice given an inactive version of the nanorobot.
"We now need to investigate whether this works in more advanced cancer models that more closely resemble the real human disease," says the study's first author Yang Wang, a researcher at the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Karolinska Institutet. "We also need to find out what side effects the method has before it can be tested on humans."
The researchers also plan to investigate whether it is possible to make the nanorobot more targeted by placing proteins or peptides on its surface that specifically bind to certain types of cancer.
