Nanotube Coating Meshes with Living Cells

August 16, 2006 | Source: KurzweilAI

Using a polymer coating that mimics part of a cell’s outer membrane, University of California, Berkeley investigators have developed a versatile method for targeting carbon nanotubes to specific types of cells.

This new coating could spur the development of new anticancer agents that rely on the unique physical characteristics of carbon nanotubes.

Reporting their work in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, the researchers demonstrated that they could attach this coating to carbon nanotubes to form a stable cell-like surface on the nanotubes. The researchers then used a protein produced by a particular type of snail, one that binds to the exact sugar used to make the nanotube coating, to act as a crosslinker between the coated nanotubes and cells possessing the exact same glycopolymer on their outer membranes.

The researchers note that by using different glycoprotein-crosslinking protein pairs it should be possible to target distinct types of cells based on their membrane glycoprotein fingerprint.

Source: National Cancer Institute