Flight of the nanobees!

[Darkblade]

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090810174226.htm

"The nanobees fly in, land on the surface of cells and deposit their cargo of melittin which rapidly merges with the target cells," says co-author Samuel Wickline, M.D., who heads the Siteman Center of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence at Washington University. "We've shown that the bee toxin gets taken into the cells where it pokes holes in their internal structures."

looks like cancer is doomed. i see no reason why these could not track down any tumor down to single cell size.

[smyrna]

remarkable

[Darkblade]

i thought so :)

[mysticbeauty_nbeast]

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090810174226.htm



looks like cancer is doomed. i see no reason why these could not track down any tumor down to single cell size.

Interesting study. Tumors being a larger mass of cells to concentrate on I'm sure makes this type of study a bit easier to navigate. I do wonder if these nano-bee's can be structured/built to attack single cells...for cancer of the blood..like Leukemia and Lymphoma...where no mass of cells are indicated in those cancers? Sounds allot better treatment wise then traditional chemo.

Something to watch....

~Mysty

[Darkblade]

because these things are carried through the bloodstream and have an affinity for cancer cells above all other types of cell I'd say the answer is they already can.

[mysticbeauty_nbeast]

because these things are carried through the bloodstream and have an affinity for cancer cells above all other types of cell I'd say the answer is they already can.

That would be great if they could be engineered to specifically site sub cells...like marrow infected red cells..or leukocyte cells. Cancer would be on the run...finally!

Keeping fingers crossed....

~Mysty

[Darkblade]

as i understand it their affinity to cancer cells is chemical in nature. meaning that whenever they bump a cancer cell they stick but when they bump a non cancer cell they simply skip off without deploying thier killer payload. so these things kareen around the circulatory system and naturally if they encounter a wandering cancer cell they should do thier magic no matter where it is.

[mysticbeauty_nbeast]

as i understand it their affinity to cancer cells is chemical in nature. meaning that whenever they bump a cancer cell they stick but when they bump a non cancer cell they simply skip off without deploying thier killer payload. so these things kareen around the circulatory system and naturally if they encounter a wandering cancer cell they should do thier magic no matter where it is.

That's really too cool! I really hope the funding and continued research goes on. Would really be something to tell my Grandchildren that at one time cancer was our bubonic plague..and we beat it!

T-cells...that part will be tricky...but they do put off an enzyme trail to trace what they are. If they can get these nano-bee's to track unhealthy type cells...shouldn't be to far a stretch to get them to recognize enzyme trails of T-cells.

~Mysty

[Darkblade]

yup. soon it will be cured not reduced to a chronic condition; but cured.

[Vaard]

it will be interesting to see how the body's defense system will react to these......

[Darkblade]

it will be interesting to see how the body's defense system will react to these......evidently any immune reaction may be limited to disabling the nanobees. they last 200 minutes in the mouse blood stream and were injected repeatedly over a period of several days and there were no changes in blood cell counts or enzymes that indicate organ damage.

Nanobees injected into the bloodstream did not harm the mice. They had normal blood counts, and tests for the presence of blood-borne enzymes indicative of organ damage were negative.

When secured to the nanobees, melittin is safe from protein-destroying enzymes that the body produces. Although unattached melittin was cleared from the mice's circulation within minutes, half of the melittin on nanobees was still circulating 200 minutes later. Schlesinger indicates that is long enough for the nanobees to circulate through the mice's bloodstream 200 times, giving them ample time to locate tumors.