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Also this week MedZine brings you the latest medical news on various medical specialisms. In this editorial, we want to highlight an exciting scientific discovery in the field of oncology. In the journal Therapeutic Delivery researchers from the University of Colorado (CU) show how cholesterol "rafts" can deliver genetic cargo into cancer cells. With this ingenious method, drugs could sneak past the defenses of the cancer.

If nucleic acids like DNA, siRNA and miRNA could cross membranes, they could reprogram cancer cells. Tom Achordoquy, investigator at the CU Cancer Center, explains the benefits of nucleic acids: "There are many promising therapeutic applications for nucleic acids, but because they can't diffuse across cell membranes on their own, delivery to cancer cells has been a major challenge. Our method is a promising way to get these drugs inside cancer cells where they can do their work." Achordoquy and his colleagues have used synthetic rafts to deliver a gene inside cells that makes the cells fluorescent.

These rafts are made by boosting the concentration of cholesterol while forming particles for drug delivery. Currently the investigators are working to match the delivery system with a potent cargo, like, for example, microRNA's. Cargo like that could reprogram a cell's gene expression and have a therapeutic effect on the cancer.

Source: Eurekalert