3 ms·
It does, from the article: "“Normally, our blood vessel walls are all sealed pipes,” Brahmbhatt says. “But around wherever the cancer is growing, the blood vess
by asdff 4y ago
It does, from the article: "“Normally, our blood vessel walls are all sealed pipes,” Brahmbhatt says. “But around wherever the cancer is growing, the blood vessels are known to be very defective. They have got a lot of holes in them.”
Brahmbhatt and his collaborator Jennifer MacDiarmid devised a clever ploy. They would send a Trojan horse into malignant cells and turn cancer’s own trickery against it.
The Trojan horse, in this case, is a product of a harmless bacteria that’s been genetically engineered to have specific qualities. When this genetically engineered bacteria divides, it yields a tiny non-living cell of 400 nanometers in diameter—the right size to slip through the damaged vessels and mingle with the tumors."
- yshrestha 4y agoI see. I do wonder how specific that is though. Potentially it could be toxic to other areas where vasculature could be "leaky". Like in the filtration mechanisms in the kidney. Targeting the cancer's vascular supply is also a known anti-cancer mechanism of action (anti-angiogenics). How will this method not have the same toxicity as that one?
- asdff 4y agoPresumably that 400nm size is important for specificity as well