Re:Nanorobots That Can Travel Down the Bloodstream and Preci...
by chewymouse on Tuesday August 16, 2016 @11:18AM
(#12298002)
Unfortunately, the original article is inaccessible both from a paywall standpoint ($32 at http://www.nature.com/nnano/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nnano...) and also from a technical standpoint.
Re:Nanorobots That Can Travel Down the Bloodstream and Preci...
by iak8god on Tuesday August 16, 2016 @11:46AM
(#12298190)
It is available on sci-hub http://sci-hub.bz/10.1038/nnano.2016.137
Re:Nanorobots That Can Travel Down the Bloodstream and Preci...
by jessriedel on Tuesday August 16, 2016 @03:17PM
(#12299863)
> By 'nanorobot' they mean bacteria.
Yea, I think this is a little like calling a horse-drawn carriage an automobile.
Re:Nanorobots That Can Travel Down the Bloodstream and Preci...
by jcoffland on Tuesday August 16, 2016 @02:59PM
(#12299735)
The criteria for calling something a robot is apparently very broad. Poor journalism indeed. How can pop-sci be reigned in?
Re:Nanorobots That Can Travel Down the Bloodstream and Preci...
by astazangasta on Tuesday August 16, 2016 @06:59PM
(#12301288)
Good question: (1) open access so people can read the original research, (2) better writing therein so people will actually understand what they read, will surely help.
>We show that when MC-1 cells bearing covalently bound drug-containing nanoliposomes were injected near the tumour in severe combined immunodeficient beige mice and magnetically guided, up to 55% of MC-1 cells penetrated into hypoxic regions of HCT116 colorectal xenografts. Approximately 70 drug-loaded nanoliposomes were attached to each MC-1 cell. Our results suggest that harnessing swarms of microorganisms exhibiting magneto-aerotactic behaviour can significantly improve the therapeutic index of various nanocarriers in tumour hypoxic regions.
So they load these little guys up with drug and use magnets to guide them into the tumor, which kind of works in SCID mice, although you'll note they make no claims about ability to actually kill or shrink tumors.
This news piece is awful, incidentally, but what else is new.