
A tool made up of DNA which can detect and react to chemical changes caused by cancer cells has been developed by bioengineers at University of Rome Tor Vergata and the University of Montreal with the researchers saying that it can one day be used to deliver drugs to tumor cells.
The researchers' nanosensor measures pH variations at the nanoscale - how acidic (a higher pH level) or alkaline (a lower pH level) it is. Many biomolecules, such as enzymes and proteins, are strongly regulated by small pH changes. These changes affect in turn biological activities such as enzyme catalysis, protein assembly, membrane function and cell death. There is also a strong relation between cancer and pH.
Cancer cells often display a lower pH compared to normal cells: the pH level inside cancer cells is higher than it is outside. "In living organisms, these small pH changes typically occur in tiny areas measuring only few hundred nanometers," says senior author Prof. Francesco Ricci. "Developing sensors or nanomachines that can measure pH changes at this scale should prove of utility for several applications in the fields of in-vivo imaging, clinical diagnostics and drug-delivery."
In the future, this recently patented nanotechnology may also find applications in the development of novel drug-delivery platforms that release chemio-therapeutic drugs only in the viscinity of tumor cells.
Source: Eurekalert