(June 22, 2015) Medical science is placing high hopes on
nanoparticles as in future they could be used, for example, as a vehicle for
targeted drug delivery. In collaboration with an international team of
researchers, scientists at the Helmholtz Zentrum München and the University of
Marburg have for the first time succeeded in assaying the stability of these
particles and their distribution within the body. Their results, which have
been published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, show that a lot of
research is still needed in this field.
Nanoparticles are the smallest particles capable of reaching
virtually all parts of the body. Researchers use various approaches to test
ways in which nanoparticles could be used in medicine – for instance, to
deliver substances to a specific site in the body such as a tumor. For this
purpose, nanoparticles are generally coated with organic materials because
their surface quality plays a key role in determining further targets in the
body. If they have a water-repellent shell, nanoparticles are quickly
identified by the body’s immune system and eliminated.