Mice who got nanosponge injections survived lethal doses of toxins.
Nanosponge Engineers at the
University of California, San Diego have invented a "nanosponge" capable
of safely removing a broad class of toxins from the bloodstream,
including toxins produced by MRSA, E. Coli, poisonous snakes and bees.
The nanosponges are made of a biocompatible polymer core wrapped in a
natural red blood cell membrane. Zhang Research Lab
A newly invented “nanosponge,” sheathed in armor made of red blood cells, can safely remove a wide range of toxins
from the bloodstream. Scientists at the University of California-San
Diego inoculated some mice with their nanosponge, and then gave the
animals otherwise lethal doses of a toxin--and the mice survived.
This
is especially interesting because a nanosponge can work on entire
classes of toxins. Most antidotes or treatments against venom,
bioweapons or bacteria are targeted to counteract a specific molecular
structure, so they can’t be a one-size-fits-all solution; this
nanosponge can.
Scientists led by Liangfang
Zhang, a nanoengineering professor at UCSD, worked with a class of
proteins known as pore-forming toxins, which work just the way they
sound: By ripping a hole in a cell membrane. These toxins are found in
snake venom, sea anemones, and even bacteria like the dreaded
drug-resistant Staph aureus. The proteins come in many different shapes and sizes, but they all work in a similar way.
They
designed a nanosponge to soak up any type of pore-forming toxins. It
consists of a tiny (85-nanometer) plastic ball wrapped in red blood cell
membranes, which basically serve as a decoy and soak up the poison. The
plastic ball holds everything together, and keeps the protein away from
its real cellular targets. The entire nanosponge is 3,000 times smaller
than a full red blood cell. The devices had a half-life of about 40
hours when the team tested them on lab mice, according to a release from UCSD.
They
injected mice with 70 times as many toxic proteins as nanosponges, and
the sponges still neutralized the poison and caused no visible damage to
the animals, the team reports. Next up are clinical trials in animals,
to verify that it works safely in a wide range of cases.
The paper is in this week's issue of Nature Nanotechnology.
SUMBER