ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

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• Nanoparticles target anti-inflammatory drugs where needed
• Undergraduate invention aims to lower costs of organ cell printing
• Tissue-penetrating light releases chemotherapy inside cancer cells
• In vivo endomicroscopy improves detection of Barrett's esophagus-related neoplasia

Nanoparticles target anti-inflammatory drugs where needed Posted: 23 Feb 2014 10:17 AM PST A system for precisely delivering anti-inflammatory drugs to immune cells gone out of control, has been developed that spares the well-behaved counterpart cells in the body. The system uses nanoparticles made of tiny bits of protein designed to bind to unique receptors found only on neutrophils, a type of immune cell engaged in detrimental acute and chronic inflammatory responses. In chronic inflammation, neutrophils can pile up at the site of injury, sticking to the blood vessel walls and to each other and contributing to tissue damage.

Undergraduate invention aims to lower costs of organ cell printing Posted: 20 Feb 2014 05:30 AM PST A specialized 3-D printing extruder developed by a sophomore and his collaborator could lower the costs of printing cellular structures for use in drug testing. "We're using the sugar molecules in a form of reverse 3-D printing," says the student. "In this process, we first make the structures we want and then we embed them into a cellular matrix." After cells held in suspension in an agarose solution are grown around the vascular structure, a solvent can be used to wash the sugar away. The result is a cell mass that contains vessels like a human organ would.

Tissue-penetrating light releases chemotherapy inside cancer cells Posted: 20 Feb 2014 05:30 AM PST An innovative technique that can carry chemotherapy safely and release it inside cancer cells when triggered by two-photon laser in the infrared red wave length has been developed. A light-activated drug delivery system is particularly promising, because it can accomplish spatial and temporal control of drug release. Finding ways to deliver and release anticancer drugs in a controlled manner that only hits the tumor can greatly reduce the amount of side effects from treatment, and also greatly increase the cancer-killing efficacy of the drugs. The difficulty of treating cancer often derives from the difficulties of getting anticancer chemotherapy drugs to tumor cells without damaging healthy tissue in the process. Many cancer patients experience treatment side effects that are the result of drug exposure to healthy tissues.

In vivo endomicroscopy improves detection of Barrett's esophagus-related neoplasia Posted: 19 Feb 2014 02:49 PM PST New research shows that the addition of confocal laser endomicroscopy to high-definition white-light endoscopy enables improved real-time endoscopic diagnosis of Barrett's esophagus dysplasia (neoplastic tissue) by using targeted biopsies of abnormal mucosa to reduce unnecessary mucosal biopsies and potentially reduce costs. It may also positively influence patient care by changing the plan for immediate endoscopic management.

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