Nano rod and worm are the best shaped nanoparticles in cancer drug delivery

Micrographs of shapes of Nanoparticles (a) Spheres. (b) Rectangular disks. (c) Rods. (d) Worms. (e) Oblate ellipses. (f) Elliptical disks. (g) UFOs. (h) Circular disks. (Scale bars: 2 μm.).

Nanoparticle research is currently an area of intense scientific research, due to a wide variety of potential applications in biomedical, optical, and electronic fields. For the first time, researchers have found that nanoparticles shaped like rods and worms are far more effective at travelling through cells and specific barriers like the nucleus than spherical ones. The team applied a new fluorescent microscopy method to standard drug delivery, which allowed them to track the movement of nanoparticles of different shapes through a single cancer cell. When the researchers used doxorubicin (a cancer drug) in the different shaped nanoparticles, the rod and worms passively entered the nucleus without any issues. The spherical ones, on the other hand, were stuck outside the nucleus. Getting through the nuclear membrane and into the nucleus is important for increasing the toxicity of cancer cells, so rods and worms came out on top. Now, it can help to reduce some side effects of chemotherapies and it gives the ability to look inside the cell, see what the particles are doing, and design them to do exactly what we want them to do.

Ref: Elizabeth Hinde et al, 2016. Pair correlation microscopy reveals the role of nanoparticle shape in intracellular transport and site of drug release. Nature Nanotechnology.

Doi: 10.1038/nnano.2016.160