Nanopills Deliver Drugs from Inside Cells

What’s the Latest Development?

Medical researchers in Barcelona, Spain, have engineered a new microscopic vehicle capable of delivering therapeutic proteins directly from the inside of cells. The vehicles, known as ‘bacteria-inclusion bodies’, are typically found in recombinant bacteria and have actually posed as obstacles to developing soluble enzymes and biodrugs. The research team in Barcelona, however, found that they contain proteins which, working as nanoparticles, have a strong capacity to penetrate cells and carry out biological activities. 

What’s the Big Idea?

The nanopill concept represents a new and promising platform for drug administration and illustrates the yet to be explored power of microbian materials in medicine. “The researchers, in a multidisciplinary study, packaged four proteins containing different therapeutic effects into experimental nanopills, the inclusion bodies of the bacteria Escherichia coli.” Researchers are eager to continue their research into nanopills which represent “a new and promising platform for drug administration and illustrates the yet to be explored power of microbian materials in medicine.”

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