LONGBOATS are again purveyors of destruction. But instead of unloading Viking warriors onto unsuspecting coastal villages, the new “nanotube longboats” deliver toxic drugs to cancer cells.
A team led by Stephen Lippard at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology created the “boats” by attaching a modified version of potent cancer drug cisplatin 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 (Journal of the American…
