Using Bacteria to Deliver Nanodrugs

One promised use of nanotechnology involves nanobots designed to deliver drugs directly into cells, allowing for highly specific treatments and avoiding the collateral damage, so to speak, of treatments like chemotherapy, which kill both healthy and diseased cells. The possibilities are limited to drugs, but could include customized DNA or diagnostic sensors.

Unfortunately, getting nanoconstructs to do this is difficult -- so why not just take advantage of bacteria, which already operate on the necessary scale and have the design advantages conferred by a few million years of evolution? That's exactly what Purdue University researchers have done.

The researchers attached nanoparticles to the outside of bacteria and linked DNA to the nanoparticles. Then the nanoparticle-laden bacteria transported the DNA to the nuclei of cells, causing the cells to produce a fluorescent protein that glowed green. The same method could be used to deliver drugs, genes or other cargo into cells. [...]

When the cargo-carrying bacteria attach to the recipient cell they are engulfed by its outer membrane, forming "vesicles," or tiny spheres that are drawn into the cell's interior. Once inside the cell, the bacteria dissolve the vesicle membrane and release the cargo.

Best of all, the bacteria can carry large nanoparticle payloads and sneak highly complex devices through cell membranes.

Related Wired coverage here and here.
Bacteria ferry nanoparticles into cells for early diagnosis, treatment [Press Release]

Image: Purdue University*