WASHINGTON (Dispatches)-scientists have successfully programmed nanorobots to shrink tumors by cutting off their blood supply.
In a major advancement in nanomedicine, Arizona State University (ASU) scientists, in collaboration with researchers from the National Center for Nanoscience and Technology (NCNST), of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
Say they have developed the first fully autonomous, DNA robotic system for a very precise drug design and targeted cancer therapy.
"This technology is a strategy that can be used for many types of cancer, since all solid tumor-feeding blood vessels are essentially the same," said Hao Yan, director of the ASU Biodesign Institute's Center for Molecular Design and Biomimetics and the Milton Glick Professor in the School of Molecular Sciences.
The successful demonstration of the technology, the first-of-its-kind study in mammals utilizing breast cancer, melanoma, ovarian and lung cancer mouse models, was published in the journal Nature Biotechnology.
Nanomedicine is a new branch of medicine that seeks to combine the promise of nanotechnology to open up entirely new avenues for treatments, such as making minuscule, molecule-sized nanoparticles to diagnose and treat difficult diseases, especially cancer.