-- Shares Facebook Twitter Reddit Email Scientists at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden announced in a paper on Monday that they have developed nanorobots which kill cancer cells using a specialized trigger. The technology, first tested in mice, holds promise to one day provide treatment in humans. Related Scientists record the sound of a single bacterium's motion Nanorobots are microscopic machines used to perform tasks too minute or delicate for larger devices and can be more precise and effective than certain drugs or other cancer therapies.
The Karolinska Institute's researchers developed nanostructures called an origami switch using DNA as its building material. These structures include six peptides (amino acid chains) assembled in the same shape as a hexagon just 10 nanometers in diameter. They act on receptors that line the membranes of all our cells called death receptors, so called because when they are set off, they cause cells to die.
Cells that keep growing and don't die are what we call tumors. By hiding the death receptors within the nanorobot, the scientists were able to program it so that the death receptors are only activated when exposed to cancer cells. In the experiment, this reduced tumor growth by 70%.
"This hexagonal nanopattern of peptides becomes a lethal weapon," study co-author Professor Björn Högberg at the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Karolinska Institutet said in a statement . "If you were to administer it as a drug, it.
