LONGBOATS are again purveyors of destruction. But instead of unloading Viking warriors onto unsuspecting coastal villages, the new 鈥渘anotube longboats鈥� deliver toxic drugs to cancer cells.
A team led by at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology created the 鈥渂oats鈥� by attaching a modified version of potent cancer drug and folic acid to carbon nanotubes.
The boats killed cells with folic acid receptors more effectively than cells without them. As these receptors are most numerous on cancer cells, the hope is that the drug may target tumours in the body and spare healthy cells ().
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Cancer drug has also been loaded onto longboats. These were too big to squeeze through the pores in normal blood vessels, but small enough to get into the vessels that feed tumours ().
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