| HIV acquires a nano-enemy |
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| Monday, 02 April 2007 | ||||||
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Nanotechnology looks promising CARBON nanotubes have been used to smuggle HIV-blocking molecules into human cells. Small interfering RNA molecules (siRNA) had been suggested as an HIV treatment, because they destroy messenger RNA, which is used to make the cell-surface proteins HIV needs to infect immune cells called T-cells. The hard part is getting siRNA into T-cells. Now Hongjie Dai and colleagues at Stanford University in California have attached siRNA to carbon nanotubes, which penetrate T-cell membranes and deposit the siRNA inside the cells. When siRNA-laden nanotubes were added to human T-cells, they blocked between 60 and 80 per cent of HIV receptor protein expression (Angewandte Chemie, DOI: 10.1002/anie.200604295).
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