Leuk-alike

Delivering drugs right to the heart of cancerous tumours is a challenging task. They must reach their dangerous target – which may be deep within tissues – without alerting immune cells that police the body for foreign invaders. Scientists are now tackling this predicament by camouflaging drugs in nanoparticles coated with membranes from leukocytes [white blood cells]. Unlike naked nanoparticles, these tiny disguised pouches raise no suspicion. And what’s more they behave like white blood cells, using their borrowed membranes en route to wriggle through barriers, such as blood vessels, as they home in on their target. Such coated particles, known as ‘leukolike vectors’ bring the prospect of more effective treatment for previously inaccessible cancers.

Written by Georgina Askeland

Georgina Askeland

Writer

A recent graduate from UCL, Georgina is a keen molecular biologist with a passion for creating accessible science. She has a fascination with cell biology– from DNA to viral infection.

• Ennio Tasciotti
• The Methodist Hospital System Research Institute, USA
• Reprinted by permission from Macmillan Publishers Ltd: Nature Nanotechnology Copyright 2013
• Published in Nature Nanotechnology 8, 61-68