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New nanodevice defeats drug resistance
" Chemotherapy often shrinks tumors at first, but as cancer cells become resistant to drug treatment, tumors can grow back. A new nanodevice developed by MIT researchers can help overcome that by first blocking the gene that confers drug resistance, then launching a new chemotherapy attack against the disarmed tumors.
The device, which consists of gold nanoparticles embedded in a hydrogel that can be injected or implanted at a tumor site, could also be used more broadly to disrupt any gene involved in cancer.
"You can target any genetic marker and deliver a drug, including those that don't necessarily involve drug-resistance pathways. It's a universal platform for dual therapy," says Natalie Artzi, a research scientist at MIT's Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (IMES), an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, and senior author of a paper describing the device in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the week of March 2."
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While this is encouraging for cancer treatments, it also bears out a long held worry of mine: if we can target specific genes for destruction (curing) what's to prevent targetting genes typically associated with specific ethnicites? Sickle cell in blacks for example or Taysach's in Jews.
A genetic weapon seems plausible. Create a nanotech that kills only specific genes commonly found in specific ethnicities and you can wipe those ethnicities out.
" Chemotherapy often shrinks tumors at first, but as cancer cells become resistant to drug treatment, tumors can grow back. A new nanodevice developed by MIT researchers can help overcome that by first blocking the gene that confers drug resistance, then launching a new chemotherapy attack against the disarmed tumors.
The device, which consists of gold nanoparticles embedded in a hydrogel that can be injected or implanted at a tumor site, could also be used more broadly to disrupt any gene involved in cancer.
"You can target any genetic marker and deliver a drug, including those that don't necessarily involve drug-resistance pathways. It's a universal platform for dual therapy," says Natalie Artzi, a research scientist at MIT's Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (IMES), an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, and senior author of a paper describing the device in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the week of March 2."
more at link
While this is encouraging for cancer treatments, it also bears out a long held worry of mine: if we can target specific genes for destruction (curing) what's to prevent targetting genes typically associated with specific ethnicites? Sickle cell in blacks for example or Taysach's in Jews.
A genetic weapon seems plausible. Create a nanotech that kills only specific genes commonly found in specific ethnicities and you can wipe those ethnicities out.