High-Tech Grapefruit

Nanotechnology offers a wide potential for medical therapeutics – specifically with regard to delivery applications. Qilong Wang, from the Louisville Veterans Administration Medical Center (Kentucky, USA), and colleagues have devised nanoparticles made of grapefruit-derived lipids, which the authors referred to as "grapefruit-derived nanovectors,” (GNVs) and find that these molecules  can effectively deliver chemotherapeutic agents, short interfering RNA, DNA expression vectors and proteins to different types of cells. Further, the team reports that treatment of animals with GNVs causes fewer adverse effects, as compared to treatment with drugs encapsulated in synthetic lipids. A Phase 1 clinical trial for treatment of colon cancer patients suggests that GNVs is not only effective, but confers no toxicity.