Side effects from current drugs exist
because of the more general delivery systems that exist today. Drugs
bond with unintended, multiple receptors and cause unwanted side
effects as a result. With nanites as the delivery systems for drugs,
targeted delivery can be achieved. The benefits of targeted delivery
are substantial—consider the results of present-day chemotherapy
upon cancer cells: patients often suffer severe debilitating effects
due to the fact that chemotherapy treatments affect non-cancerous
cells in harmful ways. Harvard and MIT researchers have been able to
attach RNA strands to nano-particles and then fill them with
chemotherapy drugs. These RNA strands are attracted to cancer cells
and the nanoparticles will adhere to them, releasing the chemotherapy
drug directly into the cancer cell. Targeted delivery through nanites
can potentially eliminate side effects from drugs altogether in the
future, and ensure faster drug activation.
http://www.kurzweilai.net/a-multifunctional-nano-carrier-to-detect-diagnose-and-deliver-drugs-to-cancer-cells
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