German scientists have come up with a new, effective way to deliver anti-cancer drugs to tumors without damaging healthy cells in the body. To do this, they took as a basis a natural biological process - the movement of sperm to the uterus.
It should be recalled that the delivery of effective doses of a drug to an organ from a tumor without injuring healthy tissues is a major problem in cancer treatment. However, researchers at the Institute for Integrative Nanosciences and the University of Technology in Germany have found a way to solve this problem.
They came up with the idea of delivering drugs for the treatment of diseases of the female reproductive system using spermatozoa, using their ability to purposeful movement. To do this, the researchers placed the bull's sperm in metal shells and, acting on them with a magnetic field, began to set them the desired direction.
Scientists clarify that sperm cells were originally adapted for active movement in the reproductive tract, and their membranes protect the drug from interacting with other cells. In addition, each sperm is capable of carrying a fairly large volume of the drug.
Successful tests of the new method gave hope that it would soon be possible to apply it in practice. Unfortunately, so far this will only concern the treatment of cancer of the female reproductive system.