New 'molecular computers' find the right cells

Date20th, Aug 2020

Summary:

New nanoscale devices, made of synthetic proteins, have been designed to target a therapeutic agent only to cells with a specific, predetermined combinations of cell surface markers. They operate on their own and search out cells they were programmed to find. The hope is that they might guide CAR T cancer therapy, and other treatments where precision is critical, through a sort of molecular beacon.

Full text:

Nano-device Co-LOCKR targets cell surface combination

image: An artist's depiction of a Co-LOCKR nano-device coming together on the surface of a cell that has the right combination of cell surface markers. view more 

Credit: UW Medicine Institute for Protein Design

Scientists have demonstrated a new way to precisely target cells by distinguishing them from neighboring cells that look quite similar.

Even cells that become cancerous may differ from their healthy neighbors in only a few subtle ways. A central challenge in the treatment of cancer and many other diseases is being able to spot the right cells while sparing all others.

In a paper published 20 August in Science, a team of researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine and the

Source:

EurekAlert