New 'smart' nanotherapeutics can deliver drugs directly to the pancreas
Thursday, January 12, 2012 - 16:30
in Health & Medicine
Scientists have developed "smart" nanotherapeutics that can be programmed to selectively deliver drugs to the cells of the pancreas. The approach was found to increase drug efficacy by 200-fold in in vitro studies based on the ability of these nanomaterials to both protect the drug from degradation and concentrate it at key target sites, such as regions of the pancreas that contain the insulin-producing cells.